Sentinel
by ShadowJ51
Summary: Swept up in events beyond his control, a boy awakens to his destiny. But in a war between two worlds, with a partner that was not meant to exist, not all is what it appears to be...
1. Much Adream About Nothing

Wake up, little one.

...nnn...

It's time to get up.

...h-huh?

Good morning, little one. Today is the first day of the rest of your life.

What's going on?

The rest of your life. After all, all of us need... purpose... don't we?

We who?

Who indeed... you seem to understand more than the others.

Others? What others?

The failures.

Failures?

Don't worry. You're not like them, those poor pathetic misfits... it was a mercy to destroy them...

Destroy? Mercy??

You disagree?

I don't even know what you're talking about! Who are you? Where am I? And what is this "purpose"?

Perhaps the data banks have not kicked in yet. Give it time. They will.

Who are you?!

You will know soon enough...

No. I will know now.

Hm?

Tell me. now

What...?

...grrr...

Activate emergency locks! Seal all exits!

...damn it... call up the operators... tell them we've got a wild one...

* * *

A brown haired boy stared desperately up into the sky, without knowing why. "Hurry! Get out of there!"

Streams of smoke slashed across the sky, detonating against a shadowy creature up the street, shooting sparks into the skyscrapers next to it. He heard screams of panic from the fleeing people around him... but nothing from behind the smoke.

He felt something stream across his face. _Tears?_

He looked back at the smoke. It was dissipating, leaving the shadowy figure lying against the ground, not moving. Black, unmarked vans skidded up to... whatever it was, obscuring it from view. The boy took a step forward, then stopped. Not because there was anything wrong, but because everything around him had stopped, as well. People caught in mid-stride. Helicopters with their blades clearly visible, and unmoving. A dark man halfway out of one van.

The boy started to walk forward again, but jumped back in surprise when a figure, shrouded in darkness, appeared in front of him. The boy looked at him for a moment, then stammered "w-what is all this? What's going on?"

"I am simply showing you a possibility," the figure, apparently male from the pitch of his voice, replied. "Don't let this happen." He tossed him a small object, then vanished.

The boy looked where the figure had disappeared for a moment, then began to turn over the small white device he held in his hands that the figure had tossed him. One side was blank, but the other had a small circular screen, trimmed in red, with three buttons, also red.

The words **USE IT WELL **appeared on the screen.

Then he heard something unexpected, something you wouldn't expect to hear on a street with people running (although frozen), helicopters overhead firing missiles (also frozen), and something dark and dangerous lying against the ground (not moving regardless). He heard his mother.

* * *

"Kyle! Get up!" 

The brown haired boy, Kyle, stared up at the ceiling, listening to his mother yelling at him to get up and dressed. _That was weird... for a dream, that sure was realistic... _he smiled faintly._ Hey, maybe I can write a story about that!_

He swung his legs off the bed, and let his bare feet touch the floor.

Aaah! Cold!

He flinched back onto his bed, and in the process dropped something he had been holding. _Aw, no... I hope I haven't been playing with the phone in my sleep again... last time some Peruvian guy woke me up yelling about papayas... _

He looked more carefully at the object. _Good, not the phone... wait, hold on a sec... _He flipped the white device over, showing a screen bordered in red with three red buttons beneath it.

Kyle stared at it for a moment._ So it wasn't a dream... but then... what was it?_

"Kyle! Get down here now!" his mother's yell jolted him out of his thoughts. "Do I have to get your father?"

Crap... never get her mad before her third cup of coffee... "I'm coming down! Just hold on a moment!"

* * *

Kyle, now dressed in a red shirt and blue jeans, slammed his apartment's front door behind him, and ran towards the elevators. One was closing. He sprinted for it. _No, no no no, dang it! I don't want to go down twenty flights again..._

Kyle realized halfway there he wasn't going to make it. He broke stride, feeling defeated. Then, the doors stopped closing, and reopened. A man stood in the elevator, holding one of the buttons down with a bemused expression on his face. "You need an elevator?"

Kyle nodded, and quickly got in. The doors closed again. Kyle took a moment to check himself in the reflective walls of the elevator (_Good, no food in my hair_) before glancing on the man who'd helped him.

The man had on full business attire, and wore a boring looking hat covering most of his short black hair. _Kind of a boring looking person... probably thinks tapping computer keys is exciting as it gets..._

The elevator doors finally opened, depositing them at the ground floor. The man looked over at Kyle, tipped his hat to him, and walked towards the exit. Kyle stared after him for a moment, then looked down at his watch.

"Shoot!" he whispered, and ran for the doors as well.

* * *

After reaching school with only moments to spare, Kyle had sat through boring class after boring class, just wanting the day to be over. It seemed like it took forever for lunch to roll around. 

Kyle grabbed whatever the lunch people, _Or "Nutritional Supply Personnel" now..._ had, and sat down at the usual table next to a window. Not that there was much to see. His friends Isaac, with short, (and for no really apparent reason) pale blue hair, and Kirsten, who had medium length blonde hair, were already sitting down, eating... something.

Kirsten looked up at Kyle. "You okay? You look kinda sick..." she half-grinned. "Tasted the food already?"

Kyle shook his head, and set his head down on the table (making sure to move the food out of the way first). "Hard day so far?" he heard Kirsten ask.

Kyle shrugged. "I dunno..." he said into the table.

He heard Isaac sigh, and put down his fork. "Okay. What is it, Kyle?"

Kyle looked up at them. "I dunno..."

"Really getting somewhere now..." Kirsten muttered sarcastically. "Worried about your 'date' later?"

Kyle blinked. He'd completely forgotten he'd somehow managed to work up the courage to ask Lauren out. He felt himself turn slightly red. "Well, that wasn't it..."

"Well, then what?"

"Um..."

Kirsten's grin widened. "You call that Guatemalan phone sex place in your sleep again?"

"What?!" Kyle said. A bit too loudly. He felt peoples' eyes turning to look at them. _Crap..._

Isaac saw Kyle's faint look of panic, and muttered "Just look un-interesting, and they'll ignore us."

"Like that's hard to do."

"Kirsten..."

"What? It's true!"

Kyle chanced a glance around the lunch room. They were being ignored again. _Phew..._ Deciding that telling the truth was better than any more of Kirsten's weird ideas, Kyle spoke up. "It's... this dream I had last night..."

"About Guatemalan phone sex?"

Kyle buried his head in his hands. _Okay, maybe there's no way around her weirdness..._ "No. I mean that's what's been bothering me today..."

Kirsten laughed. "You mean the G-"

:"If you say that one more time," Isaac muttered, "I'll make you regret it."

Kirsten laughed again. "Yeah right. You're not supposed to use your martial arts crap on people like me."

Isaac sighed. "Look, Kyle, you were saying?"

Thank god for people like Isaac... "Well, I had this dream, with this weird dark thing-"

"I knew it!" Kirsten crowed. "I knew it was about Gua- oof!" the last sound being all the air leaving her lungs as Isaac elbowed her hard in the stomach. "You were saying?" Isaac said as Kirsten gasped for air.

"Um... right. The dark thing, helicopters were shooting at it... and I was upset about it, for some reason... then everything froze, and this guy appeared out of thin air. He said some weird stuff, and then he gave me this device, and vanished."

Kirsten had recovered somewhat, and heard the tail end of what Kyle said. "Sounds like my last boyfriend."

Isaac ignored her. "Okay, that is weird... but why are you all upset about this?"

Kyle reached into his pocket, and took out the device he'd found this morning. "Because... when I woke up this morning... I was holding this... and it looks exactly like the thing the guy gave me in my dream."

Neither Isaac or Kirsten said anything for a moment. Kirsten opened up her mouth, probably to make a sarcastic remark, when something brilliantly bright flashed right outside their window, and the sound of an explosion rattled through the building, shattering the window and sending shards of glass splintering into the cafeteria. His friends ducked under the table, but Kyle didn't. He couldn't. Not with what he saw through the window.

Kirsten's and Isaac's heads popped out from under the table. "Get down, damn it!"

Kyle shook his head slowly. He pointed out the window. "Um..."

Both his friends looked out the window, where he was pointing. "That..."

A red and black dinosaur the size of a large dog roared, and spit fireballs at passing cars. The sounds of helicopter rotors sounded in the distance. Kyle gulped, and finished his sentence. "That's the dark thing I was telling you guys about..."

The red and black dinosaur roared again, and ran off down the street, away from the school.

* * *

Shadow: "For future reference, this is the section of the chapter where I talk about random stuff. If you don't like that, then skip to the bottom and leave a review.

Hey! You're still reading! Cool.

Anyways, long-time readers have probably already noticed a change in format. (Including all the lines and lack of Renamon. (She's taking a break. Don't know if she'll be back...)) If you're not, then don't worry about it.

If you've read this far into the chapter (which means you've read the entire thing) please leave a review! My writing is not perfect (yet), and I could use the advice. Or, if you really liked it, then say so! Or (insert other option here)!

Finally, a big shout out to everyone in Peru and Guatemala! Remember: if we all yell loud enough, everyone can hear us."


	2. Dream Chasers

Dream Chasers

Kyle ran down the street after the red and black dinosaur that had appeared seemingly out of thin air outside of his school. He heard Isaac and Kirsten following him, but ignored them for the moment.

Kyle slid to a stop at a street corner. Around him lay abandoned cars, some impaled by other ones. A car had slammed into a store front, narrowly missing a table which still had somebody's cappuccino sitting on it. _Well, at least it'll be there when they get back..._ Kyle looked around. Everything was quiet. No sign of anything alive. "Man, how hard is it to find a dinosaur?"

He heard something behind him running, and looked back. Isaac and Kirsten ran up to where he was. Kirsten seemed a bit out of breath, but Isaac wasn't, and asked "What exactly are you doing?"

Kyle looked around, suddenly realizing he might sound very foolish. "Um... well, I had a dream about it, so... it must be important, right?" His friends did not seem convinced. "Well, look, we don't exactly see a dinosaur every day, right?"

Isaac sighed. "I guess that has some sort of logic to it..."

A sound from their left made them jump. Something had just exploded, from the sounds of it, and the noise of helicopters was getting louder. "Dang it!" Kyle yelled, _Wait, why am I yelling?_, and ran off down the street.

After running a few more deserted blocks, he finally saw the dinosaur in the middle of the street. All the nearby cars had either been set on fire or smashed into nearby buildings. It was staring up at the sky, just roaring._ Actually, it sounds more like screaming... but that's not really a word you'd use about a dinosaur..._

"What..." something growled, with a voice like sandpaper over gravel. Kyle looked around for a moment, but didn't see anyone who might have said 'what' for no apparent reason. He looked back at the dinosaur, who was still staring upward. He saw it open it's mouth slightly. "What... is..."

Kyle's mouth dropped open slightly. _Huh? It can talk? _The dinosaur finally finished it's sentence. "What... is your name...?"

Kyle gulped. "Um.. Me?" he said. "I'm Kyle."

The dinosaur looked down from the sky, and over at him. Kyle suddenly realized that drawing attention to himself was probably a bad idea. Kyle nervously grinned. "U-um... hi?" To his surprise, though, the dinosaur snorted. "Not you... him..."

Surprised that he wasn't cooked alive yet, Kyle bit his lip, and stammered out "Um... him who?"

"I... don't know..." the dinosaur answered.

Kyle thought about this for a moment, but didn't get far enough to ask something else before a shadow passed overhead. Kyle looked up just in time to see a helicopter pass behind a building. It fortunately hadn't spotted the dinosaur, maybe because it was currently just staring at him, and not blowing more cars up.

Kyle looked back at the dinosaur. "Look, you have to come with me, okay?" _What? Oh man, am I __trying__ to get myself killed now?_

The dinosaur cocked his head at Kyle. "...why...?"

_Good question, really... _"Um, look, those flying things? They're out here trying to kill you. I need to get you somewhere safe."

"Then I'll just shoot them down..." the dinosaur replied, and looked back upwards.

"Ack! No!" Kyle shouted. "Don't do that! They... they can shoot back!"

The little dinosaur looked back at him for a moment, as if processing this information. It slowly nodded, then walked over to him. "Okay..." it whispered. "Where... do we go?"

Kyle looked around. "Um..." _Crap, where do you hide a dinosaur? _He spotted his two friends hanging back a bit, Kirsten looking terrified, Isaac looking confused. "Hey, guys!" Kyle yelled. "Is there anywhere around here where we can hide him?"

Kirsten looked like she thought he was crazy. Isaac, on the other hand, looked around for a moment, then yelled "There's a parking garage over that way. There shouldn't be anyone in there right now."

Kyle nodded, and looked back at the dinosaur. "Okay, let's get going." He started jogging towards the parking garage Isaac had indicated.

He heard to dino fall in step behind him, and breathed a quiet sigh of relief. _Good. Not dead... yet, anyway. But what next?_

* * *

When the four of them (Isaac had managed to drag Kirsten along) made it to the parking garage, they'd found it empty. Isaac said that most of the people were probably out at lunch when all this started. Kyle didn't really care why it worked, all that mattered was that they were safely hidden in the bottom floor of the parking garage, underneath the ramp that led to the upper decks, completely out of sight unless you got blindingly lost.

Kyle looked over at the red and black dinosaur. "So... do you have a name?"

"...name?" The dinosaur said. It thought for a moment. Kyle took the opportunity to study it more closely.

It was mostly red, covered in a few places with a weird off-center black symbol made from two triangles and four circles of differing sizes. It had a short tail, also red with a collection of black slashy-looking stripes on it. On its back was a different symbol from the others, this one a large triangle split up into four parts. The top part of the triangle was silver, the middle was red, like the rest of the dino's body, and the bottom pair had one white triangle, and one black triangle. The dinosaur's snout looked kind of blocked off, like it had ran too hard into a brick wall, but its blue-green eyes looked intelligent, if not a bit confused.

"...I'm... not sure I remember what it was..." the dinosaur said finally, bringing Kyle out of his thoughts.

"Um..." Kyle started to say, but felt something in his pocket vibrate. Kirsten chuckled slightly, trying to lighten the mood. "Hey, is that a phone in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?"

Ignoring her, Kyle reached in, and grabbed the vibrating device. It was the object he'd been apparently given in his dream earlier, and as soon as he took it out, the screen lit up. The words **CONNECTING TO LOCAL NETWORK...** scrolled across the screen. The device finally dinged, and the screen fully lit up, showing a picture of the dinosaur on its screen on top of a silver background. Words flashed next to the picture.

Name: Raustemon

Type: Data

Attacks: Raust Flare, Claw Sweep

"Well, at least we know who you are now..." Kyle said, showing the screen to the others.

The dinosaur looked at the screen. "Raustemon..."

"You can read?" Isaac asked in surprise.

"I... guess so..." Raustemon said.

"Well, who taught you to do that?" Kirsten asked. "..for that matter, what are you, and where'd you come from?"

Raustemon shifted uncomfortably for a moment. "Um... I don't know... any of those things. I just... woke up, and this guy was speaking to me... and he wouldn't tell me his name... so I ran..."

The group was quiet for a moment. "Well, that's helpful..." Kirsten muttered.

Kyle shrugged. "Well, I guess we should probably try to find some of that stuff out, shouldn't we?"

A voice suddenly echoed throughout the parking garage. "Reptile! We have the building surrounded!"

"Ah, crap... it's the cops..." Kyle whispered.

"Hold on a second," Isaac whispered, "Don't be too afraid yet. We don't know they're talking about this building."

"We know you're in the parking garage!"

Kirsten sighed. "Well, so much for that idea..."

"Come out with your hands up!"

A second voice was heard, fainter than the first, but still coming through the megaphone. "Does it even have hands?"

Isaac blinked. "Huh?"

The first officer sighed. "Oh, fine... come out with your arms up!"

"Can it even understand English?"

Raustemon giggled slightly, surprising all of them. "Silly voices..."

"Well, if it doesn't speak English, it doesn't really matter, now does it?"

"What if it speaks Spanish?"

"I think we should probably try and sneak away now..." Kyle whispered.

The others nodded, and the group snuck out the back of the parking garage, leaving the echoes of the arguing officers behind them.

"Tu Hablas Espanol?"

"That's not how you say it, you idiot..."

* * *

The group snuck through a back alley, and found themselves back out on an empty street. The sounds of the helicopters still searching the city echoed along the street. "Well, what now?" Kirsten asked.

Isaac sighed. "I don't know... maybe we should just give it up..."

"We can't just give up!" Kyle yelled. "He's alive, right? And he needs help."

"And how exactly are we supposed to do that?" Isaac replied. "If your apartment won't allow pets, I doubt they'll allow a dinosaur."

"Pet?" Raustemon asked, confused.

Before anyone could answer the dino, the pitch of helicopter blades changed pitch, filling the air with a whining roar. One of the copters flew over the parking garage, paused, then turned to face them. One of the rocket pods on the helicopter flashed, and a missile shot towards them.

"Oh shit..." Kirsten muttered. Then everything turned into flames.

* * *

(Insert dramatic music here)

Shadow- "Hey everyone. I actually updated when I was planning to! (score!)

Yeah. Nothing really witty to say today. (You may notice a pattern of that.) So... please just leave a review.


	3. Fire with Fire

Kyle screamed in panic as the blast wave of the missile washed over him and his friends. He squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for the fire to reach them. After a moment of not being incinerated, he peeked his eyes open.

The missile had exploded in midair, and was now a cloud of smoke between them and the helicopter. _Wow, that's... lucky... a little bit too lucky. How did-_

"Raust Flare!" a bolt of fire shot through the smoke, towards where the helicopter had been. Kyle looked to his left, and saw Raustemon with his mouth half open, flames building in the back of his throat for another attack. _Oh, right, he was blowing up cars earlier..._

Kyle checked to make sure his friends were all right. Isaac was staring at Raustemon in amazement, and Kirsten was sitting back on her haunches, hyperventilating, and whispering random curse words. _Yeah. They're fine._

Raustemon's head jerked up suddenly, and Kyle looked where he was looking. The helicopter had flow up to see around the smoke. It hovered there for a moment, as if trying to figure out what to do next. _Why are they doing that if they didn't hesitate the first time?_

"I get it..." Isaac whispered. "They must've not seen us the first time... and they don't want to hurt a group of kids..."

Raustemon, though, didn't seem to have the same problem. "Raust Flare!" Another bolt of fire streaked up, this time hitting the underbelly of the copter. It shuttered for a moment, then turned to the parking garage behind them and sped off.

"Well, I'm glad that's-" Kirsten started to say, when Raustemon's head snapped hard to the left. The red and white device Kyle had received earlier lit up suddenly, and Kyle looked down to see the words **DF DETECTED** scrolling across the screen. "Wait... what-?" was all Kyle could say before Raustemon growled deeply, then ran off down the street.

"Hey, wait a second!" Kyle yelled, and ran after the errant dino.

After following Raustemon for a few mercifully vacant blocks, the red and black dinosaur turned left again, and Kyle lost sight of him. Kyle sprinter to the corner, fearing he'd lost him, but when he rounded the corner, he knew he knew where Raustemon was going.

In the middle of the street stood a strange, thick, grey fog. The fog only extended a few stories up, then abruptly stopped. The fog also looked oddly pixilated. _But that can't be right... only computers look like that..._ Raustemon stood on the edge of the fog. Kyle was about to call out to him, when the dino slipped inside the fog. _Damn it._

Kyle then noticed an odd fluttering noise. He looked up, and spotted the helicopter Raustemon had shot earlier hovering above the fog. _Double damn it._

Kyle took a deep breath, then ran after Raustemon into the fog. He ran up against the fog, and was surprised that he could actually feel the difference between outside the fog and inside. Outside was, well, normal. The fog, though, had a weird, chargy-kinda feeling to it, like it was filled with static electricity, just waiting to shock you. The fog had a weight to it, too, like walking through molasses. Kyle just pushed his way through it, and managed to break through the barrier of fog. Inside the fog was a bubble of normal air, about as wide as the street, and a block long. What was really creepy about it, besides the red dinosaur and big green bird, was the fact that everything was surrounded by white, blocking out the... _wait, big green bird?_

Kyle watched as Raustemon growled at... whatever it was, _(probably something like him, only bird shaped..._) while the bird regarded him calmly. Raustemon growled at the bird. "What...are you?"

The bird huffed, and said "How rude!" _I don't think I'm ever gonna get used to this..._ "Anyways, you should know. Or don't they at least tell their pets what they are?"

Raustemon growled. "...pet...?"

The bird laughed a high-pitched, really annoying kind of laugh. "Oh, isn't this amusing. A wind up toy without a brain. Poor little thing. I should just put you out of your misery now, and destroy you..."

Raustemon paused. "De... stroy..." his bared his teeth suddenly, flashing razor sharp teeth. "Never! Raust Flare!"

The bird sidestepped the blast easily. "Oh, come now. You can't tell me that-"

Raustemon charged the green bird. "Claw Sweep!" the bird cried out in pain as the dinosaur's claws raked across its feathers. The bird clacked its beak. "That's quite enough of that! Arial Force!" a green burst of energy flew at Raustemon, who sidestepped it, then closed with the bird once again. Raustemon roared in anger, and his jaws found the bird's neck. The bird cried out, but the dino bit down harder, harder, until a loud snap sounded, and the bird went limp. Raustemon spit out the bird, and stood over it, victorious.

Kyle was about to call out to Raustemon, when he suddenly heard clapping. He looked to its source, and saw a black haired girl standing there, applauding Raustemon. Next to her sat a small black cat-like creature. (_Probably can talk as well..._) The girl spoke up. "Good job, you psychotic little dinosaur." He eyes suddenly focused on Kyle. "But next time, leave it to a professional." She then turned, and walked out of the digital field.

_Um... that was... weird?_ Kyle looked over at Raustemon, and realized that he hadn't moved since killing the bird. _Wait, where'd it go? _Kyle looked around, but the bird's corpse had vanished. "Aw, man..." Kyle muttered as the white fog around them dissipated. "Don't tell me he ate the bird..."

"He didn't," said a voice from behind him. Kyle turned around, and saw two men in suits walking towards him. "At least, not as you're thinking."

One of the men wore mirrored sunglasses, hiding both his eyes and part of a scar on his cheek from view. Kyle had never seen him before. The other man, though...

"Hey, I know you!" Kyle exclaimed in recognition. "You're the guy from the elevator this morning!"

The second man chuckled slightly. "Funny how things like that work out huh?"

The man with sunglasses looked back at his companion. "You know this kid?"

"Not formally." the other man replied. "We just met on the elevator this morning."

The man with sunglasses sighed. "Idiot..." he looked back at Kyle. "Kid. Step away from that creature."

Kyle was about to reply when he heard a growl right next to him. To his surprise, Raustemon was standing right next to him, staring at the man with sunglasses. "You..." the dinosaur growled.

"Yes, me." the man replied. "And you are coming with us. Now."

"W-what? Why?" Kyle asked.

"Because," the man answered, "we created that creature. And we're here to take him back."

* * *

Shadow- "In case you haven't noticed: I like cliffhangers. 

So, a week from today, I'm going on vacation for two weeks. I MIGHT get a chapter up next week, but if not... well, I'll get one up when I get back.

Oh, and please leave a review!"


	4. Sentinel?

Kyle stared at the man in mirrored sunglasses for a moment. The man next to him gave a little cough, and fiddled with his briefcase. Kyle finally said "What the hell are you talking about?"

The man with the sunglasses sighed. "We created - that is, programmed - that creature that is standing next to you. Therefore, he belongs to us, and we are here to take him back."

"But..." Kyle looked helplessly back at Raustemon, and was surprised to find a look of hatred on the red and black dino's face. "What... is your name..." the dinosaur growled.

The man in sunglasses sighed. "It seems the data banks have yet to kick in... we really should fire that man, he's horrendously incompetent..." The other man nodded, opened his briefcase, and started fiddling with something inside.

"Um..." said Kyle, trying to get back into the conversation, "...when you said 'programed', what'd you actually mean?"

"I mean we programmed him. As in we sat down at a computer and typed out his code." The man snorted. "Well, okay, I wasn't involved in the actual workings, but what matters is that the creature you see next to you is just a creation made up of zeros and ones. A digital dinosaur, if you will."

"And the bird...?" Kyle replied.

The man with sunglasses answered while the other man continued working in the briefcase. "It was a natural digital creature. They are referred to as 'digital monsters', or digimon for short."

"And..." Kyle voiced trailed off. He'd been about to mention the girl and the cat, but something told him that this was a bad idea. Ignoring him, the man continued talking.

"These monsters are continuously trying to break the barrier that lies between their world and ours. We are here to prevent them from entering and destroying our world... and up until recently, we had very few ways to combat them." The man nodded at Raustemon. "And this is where your little friend over there comes in."

"He has a name, you know."

"How cute." the man smiled sarcastically. "The kid named his new pet."

"No, this thing told me his name." Kyle held out the red and white device. "It said his name was Raustemon."

The man looked puzzled by the device. "Hm..." He shrugged. "That doesn't matter. We still need to take him."

Kyle moved between Raustemon and the man. "And why should I believe you?"

"Got it!" the man with the briefcase said. Behind Kyle, Raustemon suddenly shuddered, and shook his head rapidly. "W-what's wrong with him?" Kyle asked. "What'd you do?"

The man closed up his briefcase. "I just activated his data banks. All the info he needs is in there. Including his reason for existing."

Raustemon looked back up, slowly. He looked at Kyle, then looked at the man with sunglasses. "...Sen...tinel?"

The man with the briefcase sighed. "Damn it... they must be damaged, somehow... it didn't fully activate..."

"Will it ever?"

"...probably... yes. It will." the man nodded. "It just needs some time. A week at most."

The man with sunglasses nodded. He turned back to Kyle. "Well, kid, looks like you get to keep your pet, at least for another week. And who knows?" he smiled slightly. "He might actually be useful after all..."

The two men turned around, and walked off down the street. "Just keep him out of sight!" the man called back over his shoulder.

"Thanks!" Kyle called out. "I... guess..."

Kyle looked around the deserted street, and spotted Isaac and Kirsten walking cautiously over to them. "So... what happened?" Isaac asked.

Kyle shook his head. "Man, I don't even know..." he looked back at Raustemon. "...but it looks like I get to keep him... at least for a little while..."

Kirsten looked the dinosaur over again. "...you know, it is kinda cute..." Raustemon suddenly sneezed, and a bit of fire shot out his nose. "...for a creepy, flammable monster."

Kirsten looked over at Kyle with a suddenly michevous look. "So... where 'ya gonna keep him?"

"Um..."

Kirsten laughed. "You idiot. You agreed to take him and you didn't even know where you were gonna put him?"

Kyle rubbed the back of his head. "Heh... yeah, sounds kinda stupid, now..."

"Why don't you put him in the parking garage?" Isaac asked. "Nobody ever goes down to that spot..."

Kyle shrugged. "I guess... but, um, where's the parking garage?"

"Back the way we came, silly." Kirsten replied.

"And, um, where's that?"

Kirsten laughed. "You really are hopeless, aren't you?"

Isaac shrugged. Both of his friends said "It's this way!". Both friends pointed in opposite directions.

"Huh?" Isaac said.

"It's that way!" Kirsten said. "I remember passing that burger joint!"

"Which one? They all look the same! I'm sure it was that way."

"And you're basing this off you brilliant sense of direction?"

"What's wrong with my sense of direction?"

"I don't know... Try: it doesn't even work!"

Kyle chuckled a little bit, then finally started laughing out loud. Both of his friends looked over at him. "What?" they said in unison.

"Listen to you two!" Kyle said. "You sound like an old married couple!"

Isaac and Kirsten looked at each other. Isaac blushed slightly. Kirsten did as well, then turned back to Kyle. "What the fuck are you talking about, you idiot!"

Kyle laughed. Raustemon looked around. "Um... we came from over there." he pointed in a direction different from the ones Isaac and Kirsten had pointed at.

Kyle sighed. "Okay, look, we'll just follow Raustemon... he's a digimon, so he probably has a better sense of direction..."

"What's a digimon?" his friends asked in unison.

Kyle sighed as he realized he was going to have to explain it to them._ ...come to think of it, that guy didn't really give me much to work from, either..._

Raustemon took off at a jog down the street, and Kirsten yelled "Hey, wait for us!" The three children ran after Raustemon down the street.

* * *

"Did you get the tracker implanted?" 

"Yes, sir. In his ear, as you suggested."

"Well done, who... we can't afford to lose that digimon... it may be the key to everything..."

* * *

Shadow- "...and now to take a two week vacation. Sorry, no updates until then. But, to distract you from that, here's a dancing monkey!

...um...

...where's the monkey?

...ooh... awkward... the monkey's dead..."

(slinks away)


	5. Kyle Gets Flustered

After finally making their way back to the bottom of the parking garage, as Isaac and Kirsten waited for him, Kyle sat Raustemon down to talk with him. "Okay, um... Raustemon... you can't just go around blowing things up."

The red and black dino stared back at him. "Why not?"

"Um... They're peoples' property. And you can't just destroy it."

Raustemon stared back at him. "Property?"

"Um... it's like... you own it."

"Own?"

_So much for that line of thought..._ "Um... just imagine... that it's living! Yeah... okay?"

Raustemon thought for a moment. "Is this place living?"

Kyle laughed. "What? Of course not!"

"Then can I blow it up?"

"Wh-what?!" Kyle yelled. He heard Isaac start laughing, and blushed. "N-no, you can't!"

"Why not?"

"U-um..." Kyle looked back at Isaac. "Hey, a little help?"

Isaac shrugged. "Hey, I'm not gonna try to explain property laws to a dinosaur."

"Hey, I've got an idea!" Kirsten said. "How about you can't blow anything up unless we say it's okay?"

Isaac thought about it for a moment, then shrugged. "Sounds good to me."

"Okay!" Raustemon said. "Can I blow up cars?"

Kyle sighed. _Now we're making progress..._ "No, you can't."

"Buildings?"

"No."

"You?"

"N- ...wait, what?"

The digimon giggled. "Just kidding!"

Kyle sighed. "Great... now we have a dinosaur who thinks he can do stand up..."

* * *

The next morning, Kyle made it to school early. _For a change... _He grabbed his books out of his locker, and shut the door. _Man, what am I gonna do about Raustemon? We can't just keep him in that parking garage forever... and we can't just let those weird guys take him..._

Kyle heard somebody behind him clear their throat, and he turned around. A pretty girl with brown hair and brown eyes stood there. Her usual half-smile was replaced today with a frown. "Oh, uh... hi Lauren."

The girl sighed. "You really did forget all about it, didn't you?"

"Um..." _Forget about what?_

Lauren crossed her arms over her chest. "We were going to go out to see a movie together?"

_Wha- oh, right... damn it!_ "Oh... um, I'm sorry, Lauren... I, um, forgot all about it after the explosions and stuff yesterday..."

Lauren glared at him. "Just like you forgot to come to class after that?"

"Um..." _Why's she so mad?_

"And just like your 'friend' Kirsten forgot to come to class after that?"

_Oh. That's why..._

_Wait, what?_ "Huh? What are you-"

"You know what I'm saying!" Lauren half-yelled. A tear streamed down her cheek. _Is she... crying? _"I can't believe you'd blow me off for that... that... bitch!"

"Kirsten's not a..." Kyle's voice trailed off as Lauren's glare intensified._ Crap. Wrong words._ "Um... I mean, Isaac was with us, too." _...also wrong..._

Lauren choked back a sob and went running down the hallway, knocking a few people out her way. "But..." Kyle said to her retreating back. He considered going after her for a moment, but first period's bell broke in, and dismissed that possibility.

After sliding into his seat in English class, next to Isaac and Kirsten, Kirsten leaned over to him, and whispered "Real lady-killer, aren't you?"

Kyle groaned, and slammed his head down on his desk. "Damn it..." he muttered as he heard Kirsten laugh. _Why are things always so complicated?_

* * *

Kyle slid into his seat opposite Isaac and Kirsten in the lunch room. "Kirsten, please!"

"Please what?" Kirsten looked back at him slyly.

Kyle sighed. "Please help me straighten things out with Lauren..."

"What makes you think I want to?"

Kyle stared at her. He felt his face turn warm. "W-what?!"

Kirsten stared back at him for a moment, before busting out laughing. "God, your face turned so red!"

Kyle groaned, and buried his face against the table. This time not moving the food out of the way. _Crap..._

As Kirsten laughed even harder, Isaac handed Kyle a napkin. "Thanks..." Kyle muttered, and wiped the food-like substance off his face.

When he was done, Kirsten had stopped laughing. "Hey, seriously though, I'll help you out."

"Really?"

Kirsten shrugged. "Sure. I know you like her, and I know she likes you, so... well, I'd hate you two to break up over something so stupid." She grinned. "I rather you break up a few weeks from now over something truly scandalous!"

Kyle sighed, realizing this was as serious as Kirsten was going to get. "...thanks..."

Kirsten nodded. "No problem."

* * *

School had just ended, and Kyle waited outside with Isaac for Kirsten, so that all of them could go check in with Raustemon, and make sure he hadn't caused any more trouble... or fires.

After several minutes of waiting, he spotted Kirsten skipping down the steps. She ran up to the two of them, and looked at Kyle. "Well, I told her."

Kyle blinked. "Told who what?"

Kirsten sighed. "Told Lauren about yesterday."

"Oh... right... what'd she say?"

"Something about dinosaurs not being real."

Kyle choked. "You told her about Raustemon?!"

Kirsten laughed. "No! Of course not..."

Kyle sighed. _Phew..._

"...I just told her we were making out at my place."

Kyle felt his face turn hot. "W-what?!"

Kirsten laughed again. "Geez, you really are gullible, you know that?"

Kyle sighed. "I need better friends..."

"What about me?" Isaac asked.

"What about you?" Kirsten flippantly replied.

Kyle laughed.

Something exploded.

The entire school yard instantly changed from children walking home to children running around in panic. Kyle looked towards where the sound came from, and saw smoke rising into the air. He also realized that it was near Raustemon's parking garage. _Damn it... I told him not to do that..._

Kyle looked over at his friends. "C'mon!"

Kirsten sighed. "Do we really have to run again?"

Kyle was already halfway across the schoolyard, ignoring the panicked students around him.

After running a block, Kyle looked around for the smoke, saw it, and started to turn in that direction when another explosion sounded, off to the left instead of the right. _Okay... so now he's running __and__ shooting. That's just great..._

Kyle ran over to where the fresh explosion had come from. He finally spotted Raustemon, and yelled out "Raustemon, stop it!"

The dino ignored him, and suddenly jumped to the left. An explosion turned the street into a crater where he had just stood. _Wha-? He has explosive farts now?_

A loud buzzing noise came from down the street. Kyle looked, and saw a large, metallic looking creature. _Digimon, not creature... I've got to get used to that..._ It made a horrible screeching, buzzing noise, and yelled "Magnetic Storm!"

The air all along the street seemed to vibrate, and all the metallic objects rattled in unison. Including the buildings. _Shit. This is not going to end well..._ The monster roared again, and everything in the street swept forward in an immense tide, washing down towards Raustemon.

* * *

Shadow: "Wow, it's been more than a month since I last updated. ...yeah, sorry about that... vacation, sickness, job... yeah. Not fun.

But! Now, I'm gonna try to get back into writing. So... hopefully, you'll be reading much more from me from now on.

...but no promises.

Please leave a review!


	6. Personal Magnetism

The creature at the end of the street growled as Raustemon dodged another attack. It screeched out "Magnetic Storm!"

Everything metal within the city block, cars, trash cans, and everything else, hurtled towards Raustemon. Kyle ducked back behind the building to avoid the maelstrom of metal, only to hear Raustemon cry out in pain as the attack crashed into him, sending him flying through the third story window of a nearby building.

Kyle peeked back around the corner to see the digimon that had attacked Raustemon. It was over two stories tall, covered in gleaming steel plates that shrouded its dragon-like body, with two steel blocks _Magnets?_ on its back in place of wings.. The creature snorted, and waves of warped air vibrated around it in symphony. It picked up one of its massive legs, and began to march towards where Raustemon had fallen.

Kyle heard footsteps behind him, and saw Isaac and Kirsten running up to him. Both froze when they saw the monstrous digimon in the street. "So... I guess those explosions weren't Raustemon?" Isaac asked.

Kyle nodded.

"W-what is that?" Kirsten finally whispered.

"Neodymon." said a girl's voice. Kyle turned around, and standing right there, silhouetted in front of the digimon that had attacked, was a black haired girl with a smirk on her face.

"Hey!" Kyle yelled in sudden recognition. "You're the girl from-"

"-when your digimon went insane on that Avaemon, yes." The girl answered. "Now, how about you let the professionals handle this, hm?" she snapped her fingers.

A sudden explosion lit up the digimon _er...okay, Neodymon..._ from behind. The digimon growled, and twisted its head around over its back at a sickening angle to see what had attacked it.

The black cat digimon from earlier sat there, as did a digimon dressed up in a green and yellow traditional magician's garb. The cat digimon smiled. "You want to do the honors, Magusmon?"

"Oh, I think it's your turn now, Malcamon, don't you?" the Magusmon shot back.

Malcamon smiled. "Fair enough... Thunder Claw!"

Bright blue electricity arched up and over Neodymon, making the digimon growl deeply.

The black haired girl turned back to Kyle. "You see, everything's under control. Now get out of here, and make sure that idiot dino of yours stays out of this."

Kyle looked over at the building Raustemon had crashed through. _Raustemon..._ He looked back at the black haired girl. "You know what? Screw you." He ran off towards Raustemon, leaving his friends to deal with the girl.

Kyle sprinted inside the building, ignoring the sound of rending metal down the street, forced open the door to the stairwell, and ran up the flights of steps. When he reached the third floor, he pushed the door open, and saw exactly how strong the Neodymon really was.

From a block away, the digimon had managed to push everything on the office into one corner. Random shards of metal, and one cell phone, were imbedded in the wall to his right. The only things in the middle of the otherwise empty floor were Raustemon and various bits of concrete and glass that had been destroyed when Raustemon had been knocked into the building.

Kyle ran over, and knelt next to the digimon. "Raustemon? A-are you okay?"

The digimon stirred, then opened his eyes. "K-kyle?"

Kyle nodded. "You okay, Raustemon?"

"I... think so..." The red dino smiled. "But I did what you said, right?"

"Huh?"

"You said: 'Don't attack unless we say it's okay', right?"

Kyle laughed. "Is that it? It's okay to defend yourself!" Kyle stopped laughing, smiled slightly, "Hey, what matters is that you're fine.."

Raustemon smiled "It's okay! Digimon heal fast."

Kyle laughed. "They do?"

Raustemon nodded. "I think so. At least, that's what it told me."

"That's what what told you?"

"The voice in my head!" Raustemon answered. _Oh great. Now he really is crazy..._ "It's been telling me stuff ever since that guy touched his laptop yesterday, after I beat the bird digimon."

"Oh... right..." _crap, I'd forgotten that they said they were turning on a databank inside him... and when it finishes, they'll take him away forever..._ "Um... Raustemon?" the digimon nodded. "Can you just... stop listening to that voice?"

Raustemon cocked his head to one side. "Why would I want to do that? It tells me some pretty interesting stuff!" Raustemon walked over to the broken window edge, and watched the battle for a moment. Kyle looked out as well.

The two digimon weren't faring well. The wizard was shooting fire at Neodymon, but half-heartedly, not really achieving anything, and the cat digimon was nowhere to be seen. "Like this!"

"Huh?" Kyle looked over at Raustemon. The dinosaur was surrounded with a pale white light. "Um... Raustemon, what is that?"

"I dunno!" the digimon answered, "But it's nice!" Raustemon then threw himself off the window ledge.

"Raustemon!"

DIGIVOLUTION

"Raustemon... digivolve to... Raevidmon!"

Kyle looked down where Raustemon should have been, but only saw a different dinosaur. Admittedly, it was colored like Raustemon, had the same symbols, but it def... 

"Raust...emon?" Kyle called out.

"Nope!" the digimon answered. "I'm Raevidmon now! I digivolved!"

"What's that?" Kyle asked.

"I dunno." the digimon responded. "Just what the guy in my head told me."

Kyle started. "W-wait, what-?" but Rauste- or rather, Raevidmon, was already charging at Neodymon.

The magnetic digimon looked at Raevidmon, and growled. Raevidmon opened his mouth, and yelled "Raevid Explosion!" A stream of fire shot out of his mouth and washed over Neodymon. When the stream of fire ended, the digimon was still there, now looking thoroughly annoyed. "Magnetic Storm!"

Waves of interference whipped around the street, centering on a nearby building. The building creaked once, twice, then collapsed inward, leaving only the metal I-beams in place, floating in midair. Neodymon roared once, and the beams shuddered, shifted, and shot straight at Raevidmon. "Raevid Explosion!" The stream of fire lashed out again, whipping through the mass of metal, melting all of it. The now-puddles of iron fell to the street hard with a ringing splat, and stuck there.

Neodymon roared again. Raevidmon roared back, and charged the metal digimon, biting down hard on the digimon's neck. "Raevid Clamp!"

The magnetic digimon screamed for a moment, waves of energy swirling around it, then went limp. Raevidmon let go, and the monster collapsed at his feet. Raevidmon roared in victory.

Kyle sighed in relief, and hurried downstairs. When he got down there, the remains of Neodymon had vanished. _Again?_ Raevidmon was still roaring, but suddenly was surrounded by the glowing light again, and reverted back to Raustemon. The little dinosaur continued roaring unabated, though.

Kyle laughed, and ran up to Raustemon. At the same time, he saw Kirsten and Isaac, as well as the black haired girl and a guy with dirty blonde hair, start walking towards him. The black haired girl laughed. "I gotta hand it to your psychotic little digimon, kid. He did a pretty good job."

"Um... thanks?" Kyle responded while trying to get Raustemon to shut up already. "..but, um, he's not mine."

The girl shrugged. "Okay, then who..." she looked over at the digimon, and her eyes widened. She took a step back, and took out a device similar to the one Kyle had.

Her companion, the boy with blonde hair, looked over at her. "What?"

"The symbols on that thing..." the girl growled. "...Sentinels."

The boys eyes widened, and he took out a device, as well. The Magusmon and Malcamon also shifted, apparently into fighting stances.

"S-sentinels?" Kyle said, bewildered, "What are you-"

"Oh, don't lie." the girl growled. "You know what we mean... Malcamon?"

The cat digimon nodded, then attacked.

* * *

Shadow- "Why are those two attacking Kyle after he helped them? Find out next ti-"

Renamon- "Oh, shut up. You're writing the story. You already know."

Shadow- "Renamon? Hey! You're back!"

Renamon- "Why was there no one at the airport?! I waited for two hours!"

Shadow- "...um... Renamon? You... you can teleport. You don't need a car."

Renamon- "..."

Shadow- "O... kay... well, um... yeah... stuff happens next time, so, um, don't miss it..."


	7. Corruptible

An empty wind blew down the city street as both the girl with black hair and the boy with blonde hair stared hard at Kyle. The girl nodded. "They're Sentinels...Malcamon?"

The black cat digimon next to her nodded. "With pleasure... Thunder Claw!" The attack sizzled towards Raustemon. From three feet away, there was no way to miss.

Raustemon growled as he was struck by the electricity, but shrugged it off, roared, and lunged at Malcamon, nearly knocking Kyle over in the process. The cat skillfully flipped over the dino, and landed away from the group of humans. Raustemon looked back over his shoulder the same way the Neodymon he had just beaten had, growled, and lunged again, this time making contact. The two digimon grappled, but although Raustemon was much bigger, the cat was wily, and attacked ferociously.

Kyle looked back at the black haired girl. "Come on! Call her off... um... you know, I don't think you ever said what your name was..."

The girl snorted. "Yeah, right, like I'd tell a Sentinel who I was... how many people you got listening on your wire?"

Kyle blinked. "Huh?"

Isaac, standing off to one side next to Kirsten, shook his head, rustling his pale blue hair, and held up his hands placatingly. "Woah! Hey! Easy now. Kyle isn't a 'Sentinel', whatever that is."

"Uh-huh." Kirsten said, nodding in agreement, "I'm almost sure of it!"

Isaac sighed. "Kirsten, now is not the time..."

"You're friends with that kid?" the blonde boy asked.

Kyle sighed, and decided that now would be a good time to speak up for himself. Then something in his pocket vibrated. The girl with black hair looked over as Kyle pulled the red and white object that he had apparently received in his dream yesterday. Something was scrolling down the screen, but before he could read it, the girl with black hair grabbed it from him. "Hey!" Kyle yelled, and was suddenly aware of how quiet it was, other than the sounds of Raustemon and Malcamon in the background.

The girl turned the beeping device over in her hand. "...I...I can't believe it... it's a digivice, a real digivice..."

The blonde boy frowned. "Well, he can't be a Sentinel, then... right?"

The girl looked up at Kyle. "Kid. Where'd you get this thing from, and where'd you get the digimon from?"

"Huh?" Kyle said, blinking. "U-um... well, the... what'd you call it?"

"Digivice."

"The digivice just sorta..." Kyle fiddled with his hands, unsure of what to say.

The girl, surprisingly, nodded. "Yeah, I understand... and the digimon?"

Isaac piped up. "We just sort of... found him. Wrecking the city."

"Anything else weird happen?" The blonde boy asked.

"You mean besides the whole digimon thing?" Kirsten asked.

"Yeah, there was." Kyle answered, ignoring Kirsten. "Two guys in black asked to 'have him back', said they created Raustemon, and said something about activating a databank in him."

The girl with black hair nodded. "That explains the markings... well, most of them..." she smiled, and handed the beeping digivice back to him. "My name's Sara." she said, and held out her hand. Kyle looked down at it for a moment, then hesitantly shook it. The girl laughed. "Relax, I don't bite... much."

Kirsten grinned. "Unlike your digimon..."

"Oh, right!" Sara said. She looked back over at Malcamon and Raustemon. Malcamon, despite being a quarter of Raustemon's size, had Raustemon in a headlock, and was biting down on his ear. "Malcamon! Quit it! He's on our side!"

The cat digimon let go, nodded, then spat a few times. "...tasted terrible anyways..."

The blonde boy laughed. "Right... well, my name's Reto. Reto Nizaki."

Kyle nodded. "Okay, well, my name's Kyle-"

"-and we've already met your friends." Sara butted in. "Now can you shut your digivice up? It's been beeping for over a minute now!"

Kyle looked down at it. "The 'alarm off' button is on the bottom." Sara offered. Kyle frowned as he looked at the screen. Across it scrolled.

ERROR CODE 23606/ DATA ERROR

sc/FILE CORRUPTION

ABS DATA ERROR

SOURCE ?03?49

_get out of there things are about to get bad_

ERROR CODE 19019

DATA REFRACTION

RE-EMERGENCE IMMINENT

WARNING

WARNING

WARNING

WARNING

Off to his left, Raustemon suddenly groaned, and grabbed his stomach. "I don' feel so good..." he whimpered before falling over.

"What the hell?" Sara whispered as Malcamon leapt away from Raustemon and the streams of data that were now emerging from all over his body.

"W-what's wrong with him?" Kyle stammered. "Is... is he...?"

Raustemon groaned again, and the streams of data finally stopped. However, Raustemon did not move. "R-Rauste...?"

"Stow it, kid, we've got bigger problems." Sara said. Kyle looked up, and saw the streams of data whirling around the air, twisting, meshing together, forming something solid. Something familiar...

"Shit." Reto whispered. "It's Neodymon again..."

"How is that possible?" Isaac asked. "Raustemon killed him."

"I have no idea..." Reto replied.

Kyle looked closely at the solidifying form. It had the same features as Neodymon... but... "It's... all wrong, somehow..." Kyle whispered.

The beast suddenly solidified, and Sara gagged as Kyle suddenly realized what was wrong. "Oh god..." Sara choked.

Kirsten blanched. "Holy crap... that thing looks like Picasso's nightmare..."

The creature had all the features that Neodymon had, the steel plates, the dragon body, the two large metal blocks in place of wings... but they were all in the wrong places. Arms, legs, eyes, mouth, and other appendages stuck out at angles that can only be described as wrong. Data streamed out from open gashes on the creature, but it somehow managed to hold together, probably more through force of will than by any physical laws.

Kyle gulped. "I guess that's what it meant by 'File Corrupted'..."

The creature scream/screeched in a wrenching, echo-y voice that somehow managed to be more terrifying than it's roars when the creature was all in one piece.

The blonde boy gulped. "Uh... I think we have a major problem here."

Sara was too busy trying not to vomit to answer.

The creature screeched again, took a wobbly step forward, and collapsed in a heap. It screeched again, this time in pain.

Kirsten shook her head. "W-we have to help it, somehow..."

Reto shook his head. "There's nothing we can do... the best we can is to put it out its misery."

"What?!" Kirsten yelled. "No! I-I mean... look at it..."

The mangled digimon screeched again, and the air around it warped, throwing all of the teens and the digimon backwards. Nearby lampposts bent in half, then snapped, ricocheting violently through the street. Buildings groaned under uneven magnetic fields as the uncontrolled distortions swept up and down the street.

Reto nodded. "We need to take it out. Now, before it does any more damage. Magusmon?"

His wizard digimon nodded. "Malcamon? Let's take this guy out."

Malcamon shot a look over at Sara. The girl had recovered slightly, and nodded to her digimon.

Kyle looked around for Raustemon, but didn't see him nearby. Finally, he spotted him: still right next to the corrupted Neodymon, in the middle of the tempest of metal. "Raustemon!" the dino didn't answer.

Kyle turned to Reto. "We have to save Raustemon!"

The blonde boy stared at him appraisingly for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah... yeah, Magusmon? Get him out of there."

His digimon nodded, and swirled his green cape around himself, hiding himself from view. When the cape came around, Magusmon had disappeared. Kyle looked around, and saw the digimon next to Raustemon. _Teleportation? Cool._ A moment later, Magusmon was back, with Raustemon next to him. Kyle rushed over to the red digimon. "Raustemon?" _...still no answer..._

Kyle looked back at the Neodymon, and saw Malcamon halfway to the digimon, dodging rhythmically between flying metal shards as she went. Magusmon started after her, but the warped digimon roared again, changing the flow of metal through the air, catching Malcamon from behind. The black cat digimon flew forward with a cry, landing at Neodymon's feet. The cat rose shakily to her feet, and yelled "Thunder Claw!" Electricity arched across Neodymon's flanks, but the digimon was unfazed. It roared again, and swung its tail at the little digimon. Malcamon winced, but the tail swung off target, as it was missing its lower half.

Magusmon teleported forward again as Malcamon dodged another ex-trash can, landing on what used to be the digimon's shoulder. He laid his palm of the metal armor of the digimon. "Magical Shocker!" The digimon roared again, and the magnetic currents swirling through the air shuddered, then ceased, letting hundreds of metal object fall to the ground. Magusmon looked back at Malcamon, and nodded. The cat digimon tensed, then leapt into the air, right in front of Neodymon's warped face. "Dark Nightmare!" The warped digimon's eyes rolled back, then the digimon groaned, collapsed, and vaporized.

Malcamon landed back on the ground, took one step, and collapsed. Magusmon floated next to her. "Healing Arts." The wizard digimon whispered, and a light momentarily surrounded the black cat. Malcamon got back up, and smiled at Magusmon.

Reto sighed. "I'm glad that worked..."

Kyle looked back down at Raustemon. "Raustemon?" the digimon's eyes flickered open. "...red... red eyes...?"

"Raustemon?" Kyle asked. "You okay?"

The digimon groaned again, and slipped back into unconsciousness. Kyle sighed. _Damn it..._

The sound of helicopter blades filled the air. Reto pulled Sara to her feet. "Come on. We can't stay here." he glanced around momentarily, then nodded. "We'll head back to my place..." he looked over at Isaac and Kirsten. "...all of us."

Isaac, then Kirsten, nodded. Kyle hesitated for a moment, then slid his hands under Raustemon, lifted him up, and draped the dino over his shoulder. He winced. _Well, that was a bad idea... god, how much does he weigh?_

Reto nodded. "Come on, hurry!" he yelled before running down the street, closely followed by Sara and their digimon. Kyle and his friends followed hurredly.

* * *

An image on a giant wall screen snapped on. On it was a frozen image of Raustemon. The image suddenly jumped to life. The digimon opened his eyes. "...red... red eyes...?" The image jittered once. Raustemon opened his eyes again. "...red... red eyes...?" The image again skipped back to the beginning, then paused. 

A man sitting in a chair with armrests covered in buttons, hiding both in the shadows and behind mirrored sunglasses, sighed. "Raustemon, hm?"

A deep, commanding voice echoed from around him. "Where did the child learn the creature's name?"

"From this." The screen changed to a close up image of Kyle's digivice.

There was a heavy silence for a moment, then the voice spoke up. "This... was not planned..."

The man looked down. "I apologi-"

"Don't." The voice paused for a moment. "No matter... in the end, this may yet be an advantage..." another pause, then: "Activate the 'city' again. I have work to do."

"Yes, sir." the man answered, and flipped a switch. The entire room lit up with light from every wall: every screen began to fill with giant zeros and ones; pure data. An angry buzzing filled the room. The voice chuckled. "I love that sound..."

The man with the sunglasses smiled. "So do I..." he replied to an empty room.

* * *

Shadow- "Sorry for being a week late with this chapter. School just started, and they had us go on a camping trip. A piece of advice: never go camping. Ever." 

Renamon- "We'll see you all next update!"

Shadow- "Whenever that is..."


	8. Fun For The Whole “Family”

Kyle, after taking a momentary breather from carrying Raustemon, looked up just as Reto stopped in front of a small rundown building. Nothing remarkable, as they had been walking through the older, rundown portion of the city for a half hour now.

Kirsten sighed. "Are we finally here? We've been walking for an hour and a half! Why couldn't we have just taken a cab?"

Kyle sighed. _Hey, don't complain... you're not the one carrying a dinosaur..._

Reto looked back and forth down the street. "Too risky. Too easy to track." He looked at Sara, and nodded. Sara slipped a key out of her pocket, and slid it into the door lock.

Isaac looked around. "...hey, isn't this where those two kids got shot a week ago?"

"Yup." Sara answered as she opened the door.

Isaac was quiet for a moment. "...yeah, let's get inside..."

The four others, and the two digimon, went inside. Kyle gave Raustemon one last hopeful shake, eliciting nothing, before following them inside.

Once inside the still-dark house, Kyle set Raustemon down on the floor, and sighed in relief. _No more lifting heavy things!_

Sara whispered "Just be quiet... we don't want to wake-" she flipped on the light switch.

Instantly, a childlike voice yelled out "Sara-san!" a green blur shot forward, and tackled Sara. From underneath it, Sara yelled. "Cactarmon, get off!"

The green digimon hopped off of her. "Sorry! Sorry!"

Kyle blinked at the strange little thing. It was green, and spiky (_that explains the name_), and wore a comically small sombrero. Also, it had a smile that covered its entire face.

Sara sighed, and looked back at Kyle and the others. "Sorry about that... when he gets excited, he tends to tackle things and say Japanese stuff. Don't really know why."

"O...kay..." Isaac said as several other small digimon came out to greet Reto and Sara, "...why are these things here?"

Reto laughed as Magusmon herded the little digimon into another room. "They're just like little kids! We couldn't destroy them, they weren't doing any harm... and we couldn't just leave them for the Sentinels to destroy... you've seen how they do that..."

Sara nodded. "And as for more destructive digimon... well, let's just say there's a reason the Sentinels don't come after us too hard."

"Then... why do you hate them?" Kirsten asked.

"Because they destroy indiscriminately." Sara answered.

Reto nodded. "Well, that and they occasionally take potshots at us."

Kyle, surprising everyone, including himself, yawned. He glanced down at his watch. "Holy crap, its late!" he sighed. "Aw, man, my mom's gonna kill me..."

Isaac looked over at Reto. "Can we get a cab here?"

Reto shook his head. "It'd be after dark by the time it got here... and trust me, you don't want to be on these streets after dark."

Isaac flipped out his cell phone. "Okay then... Kyle, I'll just tell your mom you're sleeping over at my house, okay?"

Kyle nodded. "Thanks."

Reto nodded. "Well, I'll let you guys sort that out. Anyone mind pasta without sauce for dinner? It's the easiest thing we've found to clean up if the little digimon get into a fight."

Kirsten nodded. "Sure. Why not?"

As Reto walked out of the room, Isaac turned to Sara. "So, do you live here?"

Sara shrugged. "Part time. We have our own houses, our own families, but they don't really mind us. My dad disowned me a while back, so..." she shrugged, "whatever..."

"Oh." Isaac shifted uncomfortably. "Um..."

Sara laughed. "It's okay. Really. I've gotten over it."

Kirsten looked around the room, taking note of the sparse decorations. "So... um, how did you two get started doing all this?"

Sara smiled. "You mean the whole 'guardians of the city' deal? We got our digimon, they wanted to fight, and other digimon were the best targets." she laughed quietly. "In fact, Reto and I almost killed each other the first time we met..."

"Hey!" Reto called from the other room. "You want dinner or not?"

The door Magusmon had closed behind him flew open, and the little digimon came storming out, trampling Magusmon, who had apparently been trying to keep them from escaping. Magusmon raised himself off the floor slightly. "...ow..."

Sara smiled. She looked at Kyle and the others. "Well, c'mon."

* * *

Kyle leaned back in his chair. He looked over at Reto. "You know... that pasta was pretty good." 

Reto nodded. "Thanks...and, um, sorry that Cactarmon threw that at you..."

Kirsten laughed. "It's okay. Kyle's used to having food on his face. Actually, at lunch today, he-"

Kyle groaned. "Do we have to bring that up again?"

Sara smiled. "Well, I guess we'd better be going to sleep soon. Kirsten, do you want to share the big bed?"

Kirsten shrugged. "Sure. As long as I get the softer half of the mattress."

Reto shook his head. "Okay... well, I guess we'll sleep in the main room... dibs on the foldout bed!"

"Also dibs!" Isaac said.

"Als... damn it!" Kyle said. _Crap. Well, at least there's carpet..._

Sara laughed. "Well, I'll go and pen up the little digimon for the night. See you all in the morning."

Kyle nodded as Sara and Kirsten got up from the table. " 'night."

Isaac waited for the girls to leave the room. He turned to Reto. "Sorry for messing things up for you."

"What'd you mean?"

Isaac smiled a bit. "Well... aren't you and Sara a couple?"

"W-what?" Reto stuttered, blushing. "Are you kidding me? She'd kill me if I even suggested it!"

"Well, if you say so..." Kyle said.

Reto shook his head. "Whatever... let's just get to bed..."

Reto and Isaac got up and headed into the other room. Kyle walked over to Raustemon. "Hey, you awake yet?"

The dinosaur only snored in response. Kyle sighed. "Right... well, goodnight, Raustemon..."

* * *

Kyle awoke with a start. He looked around, disoriented for a moment, before remembering why he was only the floor. _Ow... it feels like someone just kicked me in the head... wait... didn't I have a blanket when I went to sleep?_

He felt something brush by him. He lifted himself onto his elbows in time to see a dark shape (_okay... everything's a dark shape right now, it's night for crying out loud..._) slip past him and into another room. The room Sara had closed the little digimon in. _Great. Cactarmon just stole my blanket..._

Kyle sighed, and was about to try to get back to sleep when he saw a line of light from underneath another door. Kirsten and Sara's room. And they were talking.

Kyle strained his ears, listening intently...

First was Sara's voice. "So, what are they like?"

"Who? Isaac and Kyle?"

"No. The president of Kenya."

"Eh... they're okay, I guess... Isaac can get a bit self-righteous at times, but it's all good, I guess."

"That's not what I meant."

"Huh?"

"You hang out with two guys, and no girls. I'm guessing you don't have a boyfriend."

"...no..."

"...and you're trying to get one."

"Ye- wait, what?"

"So... who is it? Kyle or Isaac?"

Kirsten laughed. "You're imagining things."

"Am I? Or are you afraid that" she dropped her voice to a whisper, "they're listening?"

Kirsten laughed. Sara continued. "Got a bit of a paranoid streak, huh?"

Kirsten sighed. "Not that you'd care, but... yeah, okay, if I _was_ looking for someone, I'd rather be with one of them than with someone else... and not because I'd be able to dominate them!"

Sara laughed. "Well, who would you 'dominate' more?"

There was a pause for a moment. "We need to get some sleep."

Sara chuckled. "Hey, if you don't want to talk about it... whatever."

After a moment, the light went off, leaving Kyle staring up at the ceiling, trying not to think about what he'd just overheard.

* * *

Shadow- "Me again, here. I've got college applications and stuff to be working on right now, so I can't say when the next update will be. Hopefully next week, but... again, no promises." 

Renamon- "...aren't we supposed to do a disclaimer, too?"

Shadow- "Eh. You can if you want to."

Renamon- "Shadow does not own digimon. Oh, and please leave a review."


	9. Thunder and Lightning

Kyle's eyes fluttered open. He stared up at the plain white ceiling, lit only by soft light coming through the window. He sighed. His back was hurting a bit, but that didn't really matter right now. _Mom's not yelling to get me up... must be a weekend... yes..._ He closed his eyes again. _Now I can catch up on sleep..._

He rolled over to his side, and looked at the clock. _Yeah... mom wouldn't let me sleep until ten o'clock on a school d... _he frowned. _wait a second... that's not my clock..._

Suddenly he remembered. They were at Sara and Reto's house. And it was Wednesday. A school day. "Shit!" he yelled, and literally jumped to his feet.

To his left, Isaac snorted. "Wuzzah?" he mumbled.

"Get the fuck up! We have school!" Kyle yelled.

"What's school, Kyle?" someone said from behind him.

Kyle looked back, and saw Raustemon. Awake. Okay. "Raustemon! You're okay!" Kyle almost hugged the dino, then shook his head, and turned back to Isaac. "Isaac, come on!"

A door opened. Sara leaned out, sleep still in her eyes. "Kyle, shut up..."

"We need to go to school!" Kyle yelled, wondering why nobody else was getting it.

Sara shook her head. "Kyle, chill, we don't need to leave for another..." she looked down at her watch for a moment. She blinked. "FUCKING A!" She slammed the door. Kyle heard her start yelling at Kirsten. _Well, that's all good..._

Kyle turned back to Isaac, who was already snoring again. _Crap._ "Isaac. Up. Now."

Reto looked back at Kyle. "Man, shut th' fuck up..." he buried his head in the pillow again.

Kyle sighed, and heard the door behind him open again. Sara raced out, already fully dressed. "Sara-" she ran by him, ignoring him.

Kyle turned back to the still asleep boys. "Sara, can you-"

Sara reappeared from the kitchen with a fire extinguisher. "UP, YOU LAZY BASTARDS, UP!" She yanked the covers off Isaac and Reto, and pulled the trigger on the fire extinguisher, sending a freezing white cloud at the two sleeping boys. Kyle blinked. _I didn't know it was possible to jump that high..._

"I'm up! I'm up!" Reto yelled. "Holy shit, Sara, where's the fire, huh?"

Sara threw the extinguisher at Reto. "You are a fucking idiot, you know that? You forgot to reset all the alarms when you reset the clocks from when the power went out yesterday!"

Reto looked at the clock. "Shit..." he dove for the closet. Sara groaned. "I'll call a cab. If you're not ready in five minutes, I'm leaving without you." She stuck her head in Kirsten's room. "And that goes for you too, kid!" She ran into the kitchen.

Raustemon shivered. "...scary lady..."

Kyle shook his head, and started trying to find his clothes.

* * *

Five minutes later, Kyle stood by the front door with Sara, waiting for the others to, as Sara put it, 'Stop fucking about and get moving!' 

Kyle looked over at Sara. "What are we going to do about the digimon?"

Sara shrugged. "The little ones know how to care for themselves, and Magusmon and Malcamon can follow us unseen pretty well by now."

"Oh..." Kyle paused for a moment. "But... what about Raustemon?"

Sara snapped her fingers. "I knew I forgot something..." she muttered. Louder, she said "Malcamon! Get over here!"

The black cat digimon appeared from around the corner. "Yes?"

"Make sure Raustemon knows the route you and Magusmon take, so he can follow us back to the city."

The cat nodded, and disappeared back around the corner. A moment later, Reto came running up, followed closely by Isaac and Kirsten. "We're ready." Reto said.

Sara checked outside the window. "Good, the cab's already here..."

"Just one?" Isaac asked. "That's gonna be pretty cramped..."

"If it's that bad, then Kirsten'll just have to sit on your lap, huh?" Sara replied, before slipping out the door.

Isaac and Kirsten blushed. "Wh-wha...?"

Reto sighed. "Just ignore her..."

Kyle pushed the door the rest of the way open, and followed Sara to the waiting (_and very small_) cab. The driver looked back as they got in, and raised an eyebrow. "Must've been some party last night, huh?"

Sara snorted. "Shut up and drive..."

The man shrugged. "Okay. Where to?"

Kirsten told him the name of their school. Sara added "There'll be a second stop, after that one, but I won't say where until after we get there."

The man shrugged. "Okay..." he muttered something, and put the car in drive.

Kirsten growled. "Okay. Who's elbow is that?"

"I dunno," Kyle answered, "Where is it?"

"Screw you."

The cabbie grinned. "Trouble in paradise?"

All five, in one voice, replied "Shut up!"

The man shook his head.

Kyle sighed. "I hope Raustemon's having a better time than this..."

* * *

Raustemon blinked. "So, where do we go again?" 

Malcamon growled. "For the third time, over the first three rooftops, down the alley, over the-"

Magusmon sighed. "You know what, just follow us okay?" he paused. "Raustemon?"

Raustemon's head had suddenly swept to the left. The red dinosaur growled deeply, then sped off down the road after the taxi.

"H-hey! Wait!" Magusmon yelled. "You'll be seen!"

The dino ignored him, and kept running right down the middle of the road.

"Damn it!" Malcamon whispered, before following the errant dino.

* * *

The cabbie sighed, and looked up through the windshield. "Looks like a thunderstorm's coming..." 

Sara growled. "Shut... the fuck... up already!"

The driver shrugged, just as an odd buzzing sound began to fill the air. "Hey, does anybody else-?" Kyle started to say, before there was a loud crack, a brilliant light, and the entire world started doing cartwheels. A foot, an arm, a chest- _hello!_ -sped by, before everything slammed to a stop. The world seemed upside down, so Kyle climbed out the window of the now stopped car, and looked around.

The car was upside down, on fire, on the side of the road. Sara was already out of the car, and the others were in the process of getting out. The driver sat on the side of the road, and shook his head. "Did we just fuckin' get hit by lightning?"

A power line a few meters back the way they had come, crossing over the road, was split in half, blue bolt of energy sizzling from its ends. "Shit..." Isaac muttered. "That was close..."

The electricity from the wires suddenly shot out in a huge burst. Laughter echoed around the empty street. "I've finally found you..." The electricity wound its way upwards, forming the outline of a creature. The cabbie's eyes bugged out. "Shit!" he pushed himself to his feet, and ran for an alley. A bolt of lightning shot from the creature, and touched the man's back. The man jerked upwards, then fell motionless. The creature grinned as it fully solidified. "Don't even try to run..."

"What is-" Kyle started to say, but Sara interrupted him. "It's a Fulmemon, level champion, and I think you can guess what element it is..." Kyle looked over, and saw Sara was reading the information from her digivice. He turned back to the creature.

The creature was as tall as the power lines, and seemed to be connected to them by streams of white hot energy, like a marionette. Most of the creature was also glowing white, with no features, but for three blue protrusions on its underside, shaped like accordions and connecting it to the ground, and two golden, angry looking eyes. It grinned again, showing a blue patch in the white electricity. "Now... where are...?"

"Thunder Claw!" the attack slammed into the digimon, but didn't do a thing. Kyle looked, and saw Malcamon and Magusmon standing on top of a nearby house. And Raustemon was-

"Rauste Flare!" A bolt of fire shot from the dino's mouth, only three feet from the electric digimon. Again, the attacks hit, but did nothing. The Fulmemon laughed. "Is that the best you can do?"

"Not quite!" Magusmon yelled. "Magical Shocker!"

The digimon just laughed, growing slightly larger every moment. "You are all going to die!"

Sara growled. "Why isn't..." She looked up. "Of course... Malcamon! Knock those power lines down!"

"On it!" the cat digimon growled. "Dark Nightmare!"

The power lines sizzled, then turned into dust. The tendrils of energy attaching Fulmemon to the lines disappeared. The digimon growled. "Fine... but I have other tricks up my sleeve..." He turned to the humans. "Lightning Arc!" A bolt of lightning shot right at Sara. Her eyes grew wide, but before she could react, something flew in front of her, blocking the attack. Something shaped like a cat...

"Malcamon!"

**DIGIVOLUTION**

"Malcamon... digivolve to... Malrizamon!"

The lightning dissipated. Now standing between Sara and the Fulmemon was a large black mountain lion with streaks of silver arcing across its back. Malrizamon grinned. "Now you're in for it..."

Sara grinned, her eyes sparkling. "Turn that thing to dust!"

"Thunder Striker!" Malrizamon's body gave off a glowing aura of electricity. The cat then leapt at the Fulmemon, striking it in the midsection. The enemy digimon groaned. "No... you've destroyed me..."

Malrizamon smiled, turning away from the digimon. "Then go to your hell."

The Fulmemon grinned. "Just kidding. Lightning Arc!" A blot of lightning shot out, and hit Malrizamon in the spine. The cat yowled in pain, and collapsed. Sara gasped. "No..." her eyes flashed. "You bastard!"

The Fulmemon laughed. "Now do you see? Nothing can defeat me! Nothing!"

Thunder pealed through the sky again, adding to the digimon's laughter. "Crap..." Kyle whispered.

The air shivered slightly, and Kyle felt something tap the tip of his nose. He reached up and brushed it away. _Water?_ He held out his hand. A drop fell into it, then another. _No... rain..._

The Fulmemon's laughter died out. It looked up, just as the rain began in earnest. The digimon screeched. "No! This can't be!"

Malrizamon's eyes fluttered open. She shook her head, and turned to face the lightning digimon, who was now rapidly shrinking. "I guess your time just ran out... Dream Of Chaos!"

The reduced Fulmemon was surrounded by a dark aura. It murmured "S-s..." before collapsing, and turning to dust. The dust floated upwards, before pausing, and combining with Malrizamon.

Kyle looked over at Sara as Malrizamon de-digivolved. "So... when you said that stuff about dust earlier... you were being literal..."

Sara looked over at Kyle, and absent-mindedly brushed some of the rain out of her face. She sighed. "...you idiot..."

Reto sighed, looking at the remains of the taxi. "Well, how are we going to get to school now?"

Sara growled. "How the fuck should I know?"

Kirsten sighed. "I guess we'll just have to walk..."

Malcamon shivered. "Through the rain?" She mewled. "You've got to be kidding..."

Kyle laughed, and was quickly joined by the others. Malcamon shook herself. "Oh, shut up..." Sara sighed, picked up Malcamon, and held the cat inside her jacket. The digimon smiled. "Thanks..."

Sara nodded, and led the group down the road, back towards the city.

* * *

"At least the creation software worked this time, to its full extent." 

"Yes... and perhaps I should try once more..."

"What do you mean?"

"One with full memories would be able to defeat one with fragmented memories... don't you think?"

* * *

Shadow- "Ooh... mystery and such stuff. Hey, I actually did some writing, how about that?" 

Renamon- "Not bad. I've seen better."

Shadow- "Eh. It's late. I have my first crew practice tommorow. (yes, on the weekend.) So, whatever."

Renamon- "You know Shadow doesn't own digimon, so this is for free. Show some appreciation, huh?"

Shadow- "Renamon... don't be whiny..."

Renamon- "...I think it really is getting late..."

Shadow- "Night, peoples. Try to ignore the man behind the curtain."


	10. Cryptic

Kyle walked slowly down the steps to his school, avoiding everyone else, for the moment. _Well, that was a disaster... I don't know what was worse, getting to school __just__ after lunch, so we missed that, having to pretend not to be there, so the teachers wouldn't hassle us, or Kirsten having __lied__ about telling Lauren what happened, why I forgot to show up for our date, so now she hates me, and-_ Kyle took a deep breath. _You know what? I'm just gonna go home, and pretend today didn't happen._

Slipping by Kirsten and Isaac, Kyle started on his walk home. Fortunately, the streets were pretty silent. He sighed. _I just hope mom isn't too mad about all this..._

His digivice chose that moment to vibrate. He shook his head. _No. I'm not going to deal with it._ It vibrated again. _No. Forget it!_ Again, it- _Okay! Will you shut up if I look at you?_ He took out his digivice, but continued walking.

The screen displayed the flashing message "New Mail!" Kyle sighed. "Oh, fine..." He pressed the open button.

He frowned as the message played out over the screen. "What the heck?"

**The Clock Of The Long Now! (You Not Included)**

Just thought I'd pop in to say high! Yes.

Crimson and black! Always watch your back. For that's where we

are.

JK!

The author. How many, now?

The answer is meaningless, the search is fruitful, and all that you ever knew about

your friend

is wrong. Yet again. Yet another?

Another friend. For another. Are they brothers?

For each other.

The clue: Madness. The cause: Unknown. The cure: Se7en

We have the twelve. But where is thirteen?

Find him. And the cure, the key, is yours.

Where is he? A hint. Closer than you think.

-A friend of a friend.

Kyle blinked. _Ooookay... now my digivice has gone cra-_ "Ow!"

Kyle looked up from his digivice. He was right in front of his apartment building, and he'd just run into a girl. Literally. _Crap. _"Um... s-sorry that, um..." Kyle blinked as the black haired girl looked at him. The both froze for a moment.

"Kyle?"

"Sara?"

Sara's eyes narrowed. "Are you following me, or something?"

Kyle laughed nervously. "W-what? No! I mean, um, I was looking at my digivice, and wasn't looking where I was going, and, um, this, is my apartment building, so..." Kyle's voice trailed off as he saw Sara's expression change from anger to disbelief.

"You have got to be kidding..." Sara said. "This is where my dad lives!"

Kyle blinked. "W-what? Then- wait, why are you here then? I thought you said he disowned you?"

Sara looked away from him. "Um... that may have been an overstatement..." she took a deep breath. "My... my dad just works a lot, so he can't really be bothered to keep track of me... so... he just sorta..." her voice trailed off.

Kyle shifted uncomfortably. "Um..."

Sara suddenly looked back at him. "Hey, I know! Since we're essentially neighbors, I'll show you where we live!"

"Um... okay?" Kyle said as Sara nodded, turned, and walked toward the entrance. "Hey, hold on a sec! Is this going to be okay with your dad?"

Sara looked back at him. "I told you, he really doesn't care what I do!"

Kyle sighed, "Okay, wait up then!"

* * *

Sara and Kyle got into the elevator, alone. Sara took a card key out of her pocket, and slipped it into the slot below the buttons. As the elevator took off upward, she looked over at Kyle, and smiled. "I really think you're gonna like his place. It's a lot nicer than the house that I have." She blushed a little. 

"Um, yeah, about that..." Kyle bit his lip. "...do you actually own that place?"

Sara nodded. "Uh-huh. I used the allowance my dad gives me to get it."

Kyle's mouth dropped open a little. "You bought a house... with your allowance?!"

Sara laughed. "The corporation my dad works for is global, and he does some pretty high-end work, so he gets paid very well." She shrugged. "And, well, he doesn't mind passing it around a bit." she laughed again, then paused, and looked away. "...that sounded pretty conceited, didn't it..."

The elevator dinged, and the doors slid open. Kyle glanced up at the floor number. "I didn't know the elevator went up this high..."

"This is the top." Sara said, walking through the elevator door. "My dad's penthouse!"

Kyle followed Sara out of the elevator, and looked around. "Holy crap..."

The room the elevator had let them out into was apparently a kitchen, filled with numerous expensive-looking stainless steel gadgets, supported by well-varnished wood. But the expensive materials was not what impressed Kyle... _Holy crap... you can see the entire city from here!_

Sara laughed as she saw Kyle eyeing the window in amazement. "You think that's cool?" She grinned. "Wait until you see the view from the rooftop."

Kyle looked over at Sara, and saw that she had opened a side door, leading to stairs that led upwards to sunlight. Kyle nodded, and followed Sara up the staircase.

When Kyle reached the top of the stairs, his jaw dropped again. "I think I need more words for amazement..."

Sara laughed. "Well, what'd you expect?"

"Not a fricking forest!" _How the hell do you even fit a forest onto a rooftop?_

"It's not really a forest... just an overgrown garden." Sara looked away. "It was my mom's... but she's..." she paused for a moment, then continued, "...not really around to care for it anymore..."

"Oh..." Kyle gulped. "...um... I'm... sorry about..."

Sara shook her head, and looked back at Kyle. "Nah, it's okay... oh! I wanted to show you something else, too!" She took off down a path (_more like a tunnel_) through the forest.

"Hold on a sec!" Kyle said, and followed her down the path. After a moment of bungling through the bushes, he came out of the foliage, and saw Sara sitting on a bench in a clearing in the rooftop forest, with an unobstructed view of the entire city. Sara smiled as Kyle cautiously sat down next to her. "This is my favorite spot in the entire city..."

"Y-yeah..." Kyle whispered, looking out over the city below them. "I never realized how tall this building really is..."

Sara nodded. "Yeah, it's one of the tallest in the city... only a few others are better, including the corporation my father works for." She pointed to a tall black building, with a large sphere atop it, in the very heart of the city, dwarfing the building around it. "That's it, right there..."

"Wow..." Kyle said. "Your dad must be pretty high up in the corpor... crap, that sounds like a bad joke..."

Sara giggled. "That's okay. You didn't mean to..." her voice trailed off.

Kyle shifted uncomfortably. "...so, um, where's Malcamon?"

"Not here..." Sara shrugged. "Probably keeping Raustemon company."

Kyle nodded. "That's good. I just hope she keeps him from blowing anything else up..."

Sara sighed. "Eh..."

The two of them sat quietly for a moment. Sara cleared her throat. "...um..." but was cut off by a dinging sound below them. Sara looked back. "Ah, dang it... my dad's home early..." Her eyes widened for a moment.

A man's voice, muffled by the rooftop forest, called out. "Sara? You up there?"

Sara bit her lip. "Uh... yeah, dad!" She glanced over at Kyle, and whispered "Look, I... my dad doesn't like guests that much... you'd better go..."

Kyle heard Sara's father start to climb the stairs. "Sara? You okay?"

Sara smiled. "I'm fine, dad!" she then whispered. "Kyle! Hid in the bushes, quick!"

"W-what? Why?"

"Just do it!" she muttered, and pushed him into the bushes, making a large crunching sound. "Ow..."

"Sara? You okay?"

"Uh, yeah, fine..."

Kyle crouched down where he had landed. _She is crazy..._

Sara's father poked his head into the clearing. "There you are." He smiled. "Well, I'm going to make some dinner soon. You want anything to drink?"

Kyle peeked around the bush. _Might as well see who I'm hiding fro..._ His mouth dropped open._ Oh... shit..._

Sara looked over at her dad, and shook her head. "No, I'm good." She looked over where Kyle was hiding for a moment. "...I'll just get something later..."

Sara's dad shrugged. "Okay..." he walked back through the woods. Kyle waited until he heard the door close before coming out of the forest. Sara's expression immediately flipped from happy to apologetic. "Sorry about that... Last time I had Reto up here, my dad found us, and got really pissed." She noticed his look of disbelief. "What?"

"S...Sara..." Kyle whispered. "Do you... know who he is?"

She cocked an eyebrow at him. "He's my dad. I just said that." She glared at him suddenly. "What, are you getting stupid all of a sudden?"

Kyle shook his head. "Sara... he's a Sentinel."

Sara eyes widened. "W-what? What makes you think-?"

Kyle sighed. "The day before yesterday, after I saw you and Malcamon for the first time, a black van pulled up. Two men got out. One had black glasses, and one was your father."

Sara frowned, and looked down. "Are...are you sure they were...?"

"Yeah..." Kyle whispered. "...they said they programmed Raustemon..."

Sara's head snapped back up. "What?! I thought we stopped that!"

"Huh?"

"When Reto and I first got our digimon, we had to battle some weird ones..." Sara said, shuddering at the memory, "we later learned that they were being made by the Sentinels, and Reto hacked into their computers to stop the process."

Kyle frowned. "Who told you about that?"

Sara shrugged. "I dunno. We got these messages on our digivices about it..."

"Kinda like this?" Kyle dug out his digivice, and showed her the message he'd gotten earlier.

Sara shook her head. "No... it wasn't cryptic like that... it was more like-" She sighed. "You know what? I think I still have it... hold on a second here..." She dug her digivice out of her pocket, and tapped a few buttons. "Here we go..."

_listen new information_

_the sentinels have a project_

_they create digimon to fight_

_hasnt been perfected must be stopped_

_the code is seven sevens_

_they seem obsessed with that number_

_talk later stop them trust no one_

Kyle blinked. "Sevens?"

Sara shrugged. "Probably some apocalypse nonsense. Doesn't really matter now, though, they've probably changed the codes..." she bit her lip. "We need to stop them from making digimon... but how are we going to get in?"

Kyle stared at her for a moment. "Um..."

Sara's dad called from below. "Sara, honey? Dinner?"

"Crap..." Sara whispered. "Look, I have to get you out of here, without him seeing you... he'd know who you were..." She yelled "Coming, dad!" whispering again, she said "Listen, when I go into the kitchen, I'll bump the elevator button, and get it up here. When I say 'pineapple', sneak into it."

"Pineapple?"

"My dad likes them, okay?" She glared at him. "Now, let's go!"

Kyle followed Sara through the rooftop forest, and down the stairs, stopping just shy of the kitchen. He listened intently as Sara went on ahead.

"Hi dad!"

"Hey, Sara, how was school?"

"Eh, you know..."

The elevator dinged.

"...did you press the button?"

Sara laughed. "Sorry. Musta' bumped it..."

_Say pineapple, please say pineapple... the door's not gonna stay open forever..._

"Ech. Pineapple again?"

Whatever answer Sara's dad gave, Kyle ignored, as he scurried into the kitchen. He glanced over, and saw Sara's dad _(a Sentinel...)_ putting dinner on the table. He looked to his left, and saw the elevator closing. _Shit!_ He dove for it, making it in, but also slamming his head against the back wall of the elevator. _Ow. Pain._

"What was that?" he heard Sara's dad ask from behind the door.

"What was what?"

"Ah... nothing..."

Kyle breathed a sigh of relief as the elevator started descending. He was safe.

_But Sara's not..._

_...and we have no idea how to stop the Sentinels..._

Suddenly, Kyle felt a little less calm.

* * *

Shadow- "Hey everyone. Me again. Just updating now because I might not get to for a while. Why, you ask?"

Renamon- "HALO 3!!!" (dances)

Shadow- "Um, yes. Halo 3."

Renamon- "BEST GAME EVER! KAWAII!"

Shadow- "...Ka... okay... not the word I'd use, but... well, I'll update when I can."

Renamon- "SHOOT UP ALL THE COVIES!"

Shadow- (sweatdrops) "...get me out of here..."


	11. Double the Trouble, Double the Reward

Kyle yawned as he looked up at his school. He'd asked his mom to get him up early today so he could talk to Lauren, and straighten things out with his. He sighed. _...which would have been a good idea, except that I forgot and stayed up too late... on the plus side, I got to see a zombie movie... _He yawned again._ Of course, now I feel like a zombie... mmmm... brains... _He chuckled slightly, then looked around quickly. _Great, Kyle. Real cool._

He sighed, and walked up the steps and into the school. He looked around, and gulped. _I don't know any of these people... come to think of it, I don't really know most of the people here..._

He shrugged, and walked down the hall, and turned left to see if Lauren was here yet. No such luck. _Of course... _He looked back down the hallway, then did a double take._ wait... is that... Kirsten?_ He watched as Kirsten slipped into their first period classroom. _Okay... odd..._

He shrugged, and leaned against the locker next to Lauren's. _Oh well... guess I'll just wait here..._

Kyle yawned again. "School sure makes you sleepy..." he murmured, before his eyes fluttered shut.

* * *

Kyle felt something tap his shoulder. He shrugged it off, and tried to get back to sleep. _It's pretty noisy... what's going on? _He cracked open his eyes, and jumped. Another boy had his face about two inches from his. "Move, kid." the boy growled. "You're blocking my locker." 

Kyle flushed. "U-um... sorry..." and moved aside. The kid shook his head. Kyle looked around, and saw Lauren standing behind the kid, her usual half-smile on her face. _Crap..._

Kyle walked up to her. "Um... hi."

Lauren brushed a lock of her brown hair out her face. "Hey." she laughed quietly. "Were you really asleep?"

Kyle blushed more heavily. "Um... I think so..."

Lauren smiled back at him. "I can't believe you came to school early just to talk to me..."

Kyle blinked. "Uh, yeah, I did... um, by the way, what time is it?"

"We've got a few minutes," Lauren replied. She paused for a moment, then cleared her throat. "So, um... do you want to give the date thing another try?"

"Y-yeah!" Kyle stammered.

Lauren smiled fully. "Great! I'll see you at six then, okay?" She edged past him, grabbed a few book from her locker, and walked off down the hall.

Kyle blinked. "Hey... wait a second!" He yelled after her. "Where?"

"Formaggio's!" She called back. "If you don't know where it is, look it up!"

Kyle paused for a moment, then leapt into the air. "Yes!"

The bell rang.

"Crap!" Kyle ran off down the hall.

* * *

After school got out, Kyle hurried over to the parking garage where Raustemon and the other digimon were supposed to be. He ran down the ramp, turned the corner, and nearly ran into a wall. He blinked at it for a moment, confused. _Um... okay... did I get the wrong place?_

The wall in front of him suddenly wavered, then disappeared, revealing an alcove where the others sat, staring silently at him. Magusmon stood in front of him. Kyle cleared his throat. "Um... what was...?"

"A magical barrier, to keep us hidden." Magusmon replied.

Kirsten burst out laughing. "God, you looked like an idiot... did I look that bad?"

"Worse..." Isaac, now sporting a new shade of red in his hair, replied. "You slipped and fell, and started cursing."

Kirsten glared at him. Kyle laughed awkwardly, to prevent Kirsten from saying anything she'd regret. "So, um... what's up?"

Kirsten grinned. "Not much over here... but what about you, huh? You and Lauren getting ready to tie the knot?"

Kyle blushed, Reto shook his head, and Isaac put his head in his hands. "Kirsten..."

"What?"

Kyle gulped. "U-um, no, but..."

Kirsten ignored him. "So, where're you going? And do you have a hotel lined up for after?"

"Kirsten..."

Kirsten just laughed.

Kyle shook his head. "Um, firstly, some place called "Formaggio's", and-" he was cut off by Kirsten gasping. "Formaggio's? Are you kidding? For a first... wait, who suggested it?"

"Um... she di-"

"Oh my god!" Kirsten yelled, and burst out laughing again. "You really better get a hotel room, if she wants to go there!"

"Wait, hold on a second..." Reto interjected. "What's this place?"

Kyle shrugged. "I dunno..."

Kirsten shook her head. "How can you not know? Have you never been dating before?"

Both Reto and Kyle blushed. "W-what about you, then?" Kyle stammered back. "You've never been on a date before, either, I bet."

Kirsten's eyes widened. He mouth moved, but no words came out.

Kyle gulped. "Um..."

Sara spoke up. "It's a pretty fancy restaurant... and, at my school at least, you'd only go there with a guy you're really serious about." She looked around, and realized the others were staring at her. "What?"

Kirsten nodded, but still remained silent.

Isaac sighed. "As much as I hate to interrupt this conversation, weren't we going to talk about something else?"

Reto snapped his fingers. "Oh! Right." He looked over at Kyle. "Sara told us that you found out that the Sentinels started back up their digimon creation program."

Kyle nodded. "Well, more like I told her something, and she figured it out, but yeah."

Reto nodded. "You also got a message yesterday on your digivice, and it might be from an old friend of ours."

"Who?" Isaac asked.

"We... don't really know." Sara admitted. "And for that matter, Reto, I'm not entirely convinced that it was the same person, unless they completely changed their writing format."

"Well, who else could it be?" Reto shot back. Sara shrugged.

"Then we'll assume that it was the same person..." Reto replied. "Now then... Kyle, can we try something?"

"Um... I guess..." Kyle answered.

"Can you take out your digivice, and open the message back up?"

"Sure." Kyle brought his digivice out, and opened the strange message again.

"Okay, now press the button blinking 'reply' and ask it who it is."

Kyle typed in a short message, and hit send. A half-second later, his digivice vibrated, and blinked "New Mail!" Kyle hit open, and blinked. The message was much shorter this time.

**Mail Confirmation Denied**

I think you will find that I don't like being tested.

Love,

A friend of a friend.

Kyle relayed the message to the others, then re-read it again. He bit his lip. _Love? O...kay..._ Raustemon raised his head into the air, and sniffed a few times.

Reto frowned. "Well, so much for that..." he muttered.

Sara sighed. "Well, I guess we're back to square one..." she looked over at Reto. "...but that _definitely_ didn't come from the guy we knew."

Reto nodded reluctantly. "Yeah, I guess... but then, who sent it?"

Isaac looked over at Reto, and started to say something, when an explosion rocked the parking garage. "What the hell?" Sara shouted.

A voice echoed through the garage. "I can see them inside, Stratamon! Icicle Wave!"

A sound like breaking glass echoed through the garage. Kyle shivered. _Did it just get colder?_

"Damn it!" Reto yelled, and jumped to his feet. The others got up as well, but Kirsten moved slower than the others.

A guttural voice rumbled through them. "I don't see why we don't just knock the entire building down."

"Don't question orders, Stratamon!"

Sara looked over at Malcamon. "C'mon, let's take these guys out."

The cat digimon nodded back, and followed Sara up the ramp and out of the parking garage, followed closely by the others. Outside, they saw two digimon, one several stories tall and made entirely of rocks, and the other much smaller, about human sized, and... Kyle frowned. "Why is that one made of glass?"

"It's ice, you knucklehead!" The smaller digimon yelled.

"Then why aren't you melting?"

"It's fucking magic ice!" the digimon yelled. It reached down to its waist. "You know what? Die! Icicle Wave!"

The digimon slashed his arm at them, sending several chunks of ice flying through the air. "Watch it!" Magusmon yelled as he dashed in front of the group. He raised his palm, and an energy shield appeared in front of him just in time to stop the ice shards from hitting the group. Several off target shots slammed into the ground nearby, only to sprout up spines of razor sharp ice.

The ice digimon laughed. "That's right! You'll all soon be crushed by the deadly team of the frozen Stalactimon and the eternal Stratamon!" The larger digimon rumbled in agreement.

"Yeah right." Sara grinned. "It's still three on two. We'll kick your asses! Malcamon?"

The cat digimon nodded. "Right! Thunder Claw!"

Lightning arched out towards Stalactimon, but Stratamon raised an enormous hand to block it. The attack fizzled out against the rocky digimon, leaving no damage. Stalactimon laughed again. "Fools! Now we shall crush you! Stratamon?"

"Boom Quake." The earthy digimon rumbled, and stomped the ground.

Sara cried out as the earth shook, knocking all of them off their feet. After a moment, though, the shaking subsided. Reto looked up at the two digimon. "Is that seriously your attack? It didn't do anything!"

Stalactimon frowned. "So it seems..." the digimon nodded. "It appears we have come to an impasse, humans! Give up now, and we shall be lenient!"

"Yeah, right." Malcamon yelled, and jumped up into the air. "Ha!" Stalactimon cried. "You'll never reach me here!" Malcamon began to fall, not even reaching halfway up the massive Stratamon. Raustemon suddenly darted forward, stopping just in front of Stratamon. Malcamon landed on Raustemon's tail, and the dino launched Malcamon even higher into the air, this time coming face to face with Stalactimon. The ice digimon grinned nervously. "Uh... nice kitty?"

"Thunder Claw!"

Stalactimon cried out as the electricity coursed through his body. He stumbled, and fell off of Stratamon, crashing in a heap at the foot of the giant digimon, smoking. Malcamon landed on Staramon's shoulder, and grinned. "Magusmon?" Stalactimon looked up to see the wizard digimon standing in front of him. "Oh, fuck it all..."

Magusmon raised his hand. "Magical Shocker!" Stalactimon was knocked into the air, and vaporized. Kyle laughed. "Nice one!"

Stratamon rumbled. "Sta...lactimon?" The ground began to shake. "You... shall pay... for this... Terra's Ire!"

The ground below Magusmon shifted slightly. The digimon looked down just as a giant slab of stone slammed up from below him, sending fragments of asphalt, as well as Magusmon, flying through the air. The wizard digimon landed in a heap, and lay still. "Magusmon!" Reto yelled.

"You'll pay for that!" Malcamon yelled. She jumped in front of Stratamon's face, her eyes glowing violet. "Dark Nightmare!"

Stratamon's eyes rolled back into his massive head, but the rock digimon only roared, and slapped at Malcamon with his hand, dealing only a glancing blow due to his blindness. As Malcamon found out, even a glancing blow from something that weighs a few tons is a rather serious thing indeed.

Malcamon slammed into the street, skidded a few meters, and lay still. Sara yelled something, but it was inaudible over Stratamon's groan as he fell to his knees, his eyes still rolled back. Raustemon ran in front of the giant digimon, and opened his mouth, flames licking in back of his throat. "Raust Flare!" The fire impacted Stratamon's face at close range, washing over the digimon. The rock digimon groaned one last time, and vaporized. Raustemon closed his eyes, and the data floated down and merged with him.

Isaac breathed a sigh of relief, and ran a hand through his fire red hair. "Well, I'm glad that worked out..." his voice trailed off as he saw Sara run forward to pick up the knocked-out Malcamon. Reto sighed. "Man, just shut up, okay?" Isaac bit his lip, and said nothing.

Kyle sighed. He looked over at the victorious Raustemon, running over to him grinning. _Well, at least he's happy..._ Kyle suddenly jumped slightly as his pocket vibrated. He reached in, and grabbed his digivice as Raustemon walked up to him. Reto came over as well.

The digivice read "New Mail!" Kyle tapped the open button.

Reto nodded as the letter opened. "Ah, a proper message this time..."

**Your Mortality! (My Summer Vacation)**

Congrats on your pyrrhic victory!

I wish I'd been

there

to see it.

In spirit will do.

Do you remember,

Yet?

Wait.

Return what is not yours

or lose everything but it.

For now,

The thirteenth is yours.

Lucky you.

-A friend of a friend

Kyle looked up from the perplexing message to see both Reto and Raustemon staring intently at the message. Raustemon suddenly grinned. "Oh, you know Joyeuse?"

Reto's head snapped up, and he stared at Raustemon. "What?"

Raustemon looked back. "What?"

The two stared at each other for a moment. Reto blinked once. Raustemon giggled "I win!" and ran off.

Reto stared after Raustemon. "...what the heck is wrong with that digimon... it's like he's possessed, or something..."

Kyle flinched as he remembered what the Sentinel had told him. _"...I just activated his databanks. All the info he needs is in there. Including his reason for existing..." "...well kid, it looks like you get to keep your pet, at least for another week..."_

Kyle sighed as he stared at Raustemon cavorting around the street. _Today, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday... then time's up... Monday. One week from..._ He sighed again, and looked over at the others. Reto was trying to catch Raustemon, and failing miserably. Sara was holding Malcamon, watching the two of them. Isaac was standing guiltily near Kirsten, who was... Kyle blinked as Kirsten looked away from him. _That's funny... it looked like she was glaring at me, almost..._ He shook his head. _Going crazy again..._

He looked over at Raustemon. _I can't let them take him away... no matter what happens..._

* * *

Shadow- "I'M ALIVE!!!!! 

(ahem)

So, yeah. Hi everyone. I'm totally not dead, even though my teachers conspired to kill me with copious amounts of work. I have survived, am victorious, and as way of celebration, I bring you another chapter, and tentatively promise weekly updates from now on!"

Renamon- "Yeah, we'll see how that works out... oh, and hi as well. Did you miss us?"

Shadow- "Question, comments, and rants about how I'm insane can be left in a review by simply clicking on a button below this. Really. It's that simple."

Renamon- "Shadow does not own digimon, despite all of the scheming. So, you'll have to wait on season 6 for a while yet."

Shadow- "Until next time, everyone!"


	12. What Not To Do In A Restaurant

The sun was gently setting in the sky, casting rosy rays across the pavement in front of Formaggio's, the restaurant Kyle stood before. He gulped. _Looks fancy... I can't believe Lauren told me to meet her here... or that we're dating at all, come to think of it..._ He bit his lip, and looked nervously around. _C'mon... don't let this be some huge prank..._ _ok, shut up, work up the nerve, and go in. Okay? Okay._ Kyle hesitated for a moment longer, and finally took a step, then another, towards the building.

_Ok. Don't freak out. Don't freak out. It's just Lauren. Just a date. Just... holy shit, are those real? _Kyle had just slipped through the front door, his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. And chandeliers. _Okay, well, that's... cool... fuck, what am I doing here?_ Kyle resisted the urge to run._ Shut up! Cool. Be cool. Don't fuck it all up. Please, don't let me fuck it all up..._

After awkwardly talking to the (_come to think of it, what are those people who stand at the front of the restaurant at the podium called, anyway?_) person for a moment, he was directed to a table. Following closely behind a waiter, he gulped, and looked ahead for Lauren, finally seeing her seated at a booth in the corner, and catching her eye. _Oh... my... god..._

Her chocolate eyes shone back at him, and a small, coy smile graced her lips. Her hair... her... everything... _well, lets stick to adjectives. Radiant, resplendent, um... um..._

Kyle slipped into the booth across from her. She giggled. "Your face is so red right now..." She half-smiled. "...it's kinda cute."

Kyle nearly passed out. "U-um... you... you l-look..."

Lauren laughed. "I guess my mom was right about me overdoing things..."

Kyle blushed even harder. "S-sorry."

Lauren looked away from him for a moment, and blushed. "I... sorry, I... this was probably a bad place to choose for a first date, but, um..." the pair sat in awkward silence for a minute before the waiter came by and took drink orders. Kyle was thankful for the interruption.

When the waiter left, Lauren smiled at Kyle. "You know... we really shouldn't be this embarrassed... I mean, we see each other every day..."

"Well, yeah... but you're not usually wearing that... or have your hair, and eyes, and um... everything like this..." Kyle stammered.

Lauren smiled. "...and you're not usually dressed up, either... I guess you're right..." she stared off into space for a moment, then got up from the booth. "I'll be back in a moment, okay?" She lightly kissed Kyle on the cheek, and walked off.

Kyle melted into the booth. _...I need more adjectives..._

Kyle sat there, blissfully unaware for a moment, before someone tapped him on the back of the neck. "So, where'd gorgeous run off to?"

Kyle jumped slightly, turned around in his seat, and saw someone standing there. Someone who shouldn't have been there.

"Kirsten?! What the fuck...?!" Kyle hissed.

Kirsten shrugged. "I did well on a test, for once, so my parents wanted to take me somewhere nice... and well, here I am!" She grinned lightly, and sat down next to him. "So, how's the date going?"

"Wha... you... Kirsten, get out of here!" Kyle finally sputtered out. "You're going to ruin everything!"

Kirsten's expression went curiously blank. "What, you and Lauren hooking up?"

Kyle flushed crimson. "K-kirsten!" Kyle saw Lauren coming back to the table. _Has she seen Kirsten? _She looked angry. Very angry. _Yeah. She has. ...shit._

Lauren swept into her seat across from Kyle, and now Kirsten as well, and growled. "What is she doing here?"

"Why can't I be here?" Kirsten shot back.

"Oh, crap..." Kyle muttered, and put his head in his hands. _God? Are you there? Please find a way to end this without me and/or someone else being strangled._

"Get out of here."

"Make me."

_Please?_

"Get up, now, and leave, before I stab you."

Kirsten grinned. "With what?"

_...God? I know you hate me. You've made that abundantly clear. But... help!_

Lauren's eyes flashed. "What, didn't you get enough of him before?"

Kirsten smiled. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Lauren snarled. "Shut up, you slut."

Kirsten frowned. "Watch it, bitch."

Kyle groaned. _This is going to end in violence... unless..._ "Um... Lauren? Kirsten?"

"Shut up, Kyle." both replied in unison.

_Crap... there's no way out now... _he sighed. _I don't think even Raustemon could help me now..._

Lauren and Kirsten glared at each other for another moment. Lauren's hand crept toward her knife.

Then, from outside the restaurant, screaming, and breaking of glass. The two girls didn't seem to notice, but Kyle looked, and saw a familiar silhouette against the glass. _No way..._ "Um... Kirsten? Lauren?"

At the front of the restaurant, a waiter peeked outside the door to see what was causing the disturbance.

"Raust Flare!"

The waiter was flung backwards in a cloud of glass shards, the crimson dragon digimon silhouetted in the flickering lights at the restaurant's front. Screams instantly filled the air. Kirsten and Lauren took their eyes off each other to look. _Well, at least there's some good..._

Kyle elbowed Kirsten out of the way, and slid his way through the crowd trying to escape through the back towards Raustemon, as the dino again loosed another fireball. Finally reaching the now-empty foyer, Kyle yelled at Raustemon. "Raustemon? What are you doing?"

The dinosaur looked directly at him, but gave no signs he recognized him. Lauren's voice behind him said. "Um... Kyle? How... what... is that?" Kyle looked over his shoulder and saw both Kirsten and Lauren there. The rest of the restaurant was empty. _Good._ Kyle bit his lip. "Um... long story, Lauren..."

Kirsten tugged on his sleeve. "Um, Kyle?" Kyle turned back to Raustemon to see the digimon's throat filling with fire. "Move!" Kirsten yelled, and yanked him to one side.

"Raust Flare!"

Kyle felt the heat off the bolt of flame as it shot through the space he had occupied a moment before, impacting on the ceiling behind them moments later, collapsing a portion of the roof. Kyle stared at the dino in disbelief. "R-raustemon? Why?"

The digimon glared at him for a moment, looking like it was about to attack again, when Kyle heard another voice from out side the restaurant.

"Raust Flare!"

The bolt of fire impacted the Raustemon before them, slamming it to the ground. Kyle looked to the demolished door and saw striding into the restaurant... another Raustemon.

Kyle's jaw dropped. "Huh?"

Kirsten blinked. "Please tell me I'm seeing double."

Lauren sighed. "What, there's more of these things?"

The Raustemon who had just came in moved to Kyle side. "You okay?"

Kyle nodded. "Yeah, thanks... I guess... but, who's that?"

The other Raustemon growled suddenly. "I am the thirteenth... the true one. My memories are whole, and I understand my purpose. Now that my masters, the Sentinels, have me, there is no use in your continued existence."

Laughter echoed through the restaurant. Kyle looked to the entrance again, and standing there was the man in sunglasses, scar on his cheek, who had given Kyle the deadline only a few days earlier. "Your time is up, kid. We have a new pet to play with. Raustemon?"

The Sentinel's Raustemon growled. "Raust Flare!"

Lauren whispered "Shit..." as the fire rocketed towards them.

* * *

Shadow- "... huh, I'm not dead. Yeah, I'm surprised as you are."

Renamon- "...2 months, 3 hours, and 42 minutes."

Shadow- "...huh?"

Renamon- "The time since you last updated."

Shadow- "...oh... yeah... sorry about that. I had five (yes, FIVE) projects to do, then exams, then... well, now. So, in celebration, I updated."

Renamon- "Shadow does not own digimon."

Shadow- "Celebrate my return with a review! ...please?"


	13. Contamination

Kyle stared at Raustemon, who glared back at him from across the ruined restaurant. _Not my Raustemon... __their__ Raustemon... Sara was right... the Sentinels are making their own digimon again... _Kyle's Raustemon growled deeply.

The Sentinel standing at the entrance, hiding behind his sunglasses as before, smiled. "Raustemon?"

The Sentinel's Raustemon growled. "Raust Flare!"

Lauren whispered "Shit..."

Kyle barely had time to raise his arm to his face before an explosion. Everything turned to smoky whiteness, except for in front of them, blocking the fire... was his Raustemon. Kyle felt his digivice vibrate once.

**DIGIVOLUTION**

"Raustemon... digivolve to... Raevidmon!"

The smoke was thrown aside as the newly digivolved Raevidmon shrugged off the Sentinel's Raustmon's attack... while also knocking the rest of the roof down. Kirsten laughed, and yelled "Nice one, Kyle!" The Sentinel at the entrance frowned lightly, but did not seem too concerned. "It doesn't matter if you can make him a little bigger... The replacement Raustemon knows everything that he should... and that includes advanced battle tactics. Raustemon?"

The Raustemon charged Raevidmon. Raevidmon growled. "Raevid Explosion!"

Raustemon leapt right, dodging the blast, and growled "Raust Flare!"

The attack impacted lightly against Raevidmon's nose. The larger dino snuffed once, and blew away the cloud of smoke... only to find Raustemon inches from his nose. "Claw Sweep!"

Raevidmon roared in pain as the smaller crimson dino's claws raked across his eyes. Digging his claws into the top of Raevidmon's head, the evil Raustemon swung his way back around, and dug his claws into Raevidmon's throat. The larger digimon roared again, and shook Raustemon off. The Raustemon flipped once in midair, and came to a sliding stop. Raevidmon was not so graceful, as he groaned, and fell to one knee.

"Raevidmon!" Kyle yelled. _Damn it! That Sentinel Raustemon is just tearing Raevidmon apart! ...I guess there was something important in the data they tried to activate in my Raustemon..._

The Sentinel man smiled. "You see? It won't be long now..."

"That's what you think!" yelled Kirsten. "He's gonna kick your ass!"

Kyle looked over at Lauren, and saw her standing slack-jawed, wavering slightly. "Lauren? You okay?"

Lauren looked over at Kyle. "You... have some major explaining to do when this is all over..."

The Sentinel smiled. "Enough talking. Raustemon? Finish this."

Raustemon growled, then shot towards Raevidmon again. Raevidmon made a desperate lunge at Raustemon. "Raevid Clamp!"

Raustemon again dodged, and landed atop Raevidmon's snout. From point-blank range, Raustemon roared "Raust Flare!"

Raevidmon roared in agony and threw his head back as the fire roasted over his damaged eyes. Raustemon leapt clear, and grinned savagely. "Time for your data to be absorbed, "brother"." He leapt at Raevidmon again.

Kyle watched in horror. _No... it can't end like this... I haven't even known him for a week, and they take him away again?_

_No. They can't do this._

_They won't._

Kyle's digivice flared to life.

**DIGIVOLUTION**

"Raevidmon... digivolve to... Rendaevidmon!"

The Sentinel's Raustemon checked himself in midair, landed, and cocked his head, as if confused. The Sentinel with sunglasses edged back a bit. He whispered "This... shouldn't be possible..."

As the cloud of smoke around the newly evolved digimon dispersed, Kyle took in his Raustemon's new transformation. His crimson and black dinosaur digimon was yet another story taller, but that was not the only change. Gleaming metal shone across the digimon's chest, upper right arm, and back, extending to partially encase his neck and head. Two metallic wings jutted out of the dinosaur's back, making him look more like a dragon, albeit a cyborg one. Rendaevidmon growled. "It's time to finish this fight... Rendae Blaster!"

Rendaevidmon roared, and a blast of white-hot light shot from his mouth. Raustemon threw himself sideways, dodging the blast, but also slamming hard into a wall. The little dino roared in pain, shook his head, and glared at Rendaevidmon. "You'll pay for that, 'brother'... Raust Flare!"

Rendaevidmon braced himself, but the attack was not aimed at him. Raustemon had aimed his attack at the wall next to himself, and had slipped through the resulting hole. Rendaevidmon shot another attack where Raustemon had disappeared, but when the smoke cleared, only rubble remained. No Raustemon.

Kirsten looked around. "...why do I have a bad feeling about this?"

The Sentinel smiled, and pointed up. "That's why."

Kyle, Kirsten, and Lauren looked up to see Raustemon silhouetted against the moon above Rendaevidmon. The smaller red dino landed on the back of the larger one's neck, and grinned. "Claw Sweep!" The attack slashed across Rendaevidmon's neck, but didn't even scratch the metal plating. The little digimon growled.

Rendaevidmon tried to shake off Raustemon, but the little digimon managed to keep his footing somehow. Kyle bit his lip, watching Rendaevidmon struggle to get the smaller digimon off of him. _Damn it... even when he's two levels higher, the Sentinels have given that copy of him so much knowledge that he can't shake him off..._ he stared for a moment as Raustemon slipped his claws into the creases of Rendaevidmon's armor and pulled hard, trying to create a weakness._ Come on... there's got to be a way to tip this fight in our favor... _His eyes ran over Rendaevidmon's new appearance. _Wait... that's it!_

"Rendaevidmon!" Kyle shouted. "Fly up high, and knock Raustemon off of you!"

His digimon looked over at him, surprised, then arched his metallic wings behind him and flapped them once, sending Rendaevidmon rocketing skywards, with Raustemon along for the ride.

Kyle squinted upwards to see, and saw Raustemon peeking over Rendaevidmon's shoulder to see the ground far below him. Rendaevidmon shook himself again, but Raustemon still kept his grip.

Kyle growled. "Damn it... he still won't get off..."

Kirsten grinned. "This has got to be a bad joke..." she muttered. "Well, when all else fails..." she looked skywards towards the two digimon, and yelled "Rendaevidmon! Do a barrel roll!"

The giant red dragon paused for a moment, then spun in midair to the left. Kyle watched as Raustemon scrabbled for grip for a moment, then lost it entirely, and began to fall. Rendaevidmon completed his roll and stared down at the falling digimon.

Kyle started to yell again, but it seemed like Rendaevidmon knew what to do, as light was already building in his mouth. "Rendae Blaster!" The brilliant light shot forth again, this time striking Raustemon true, and slamming him into the ground. Kyle and Kirsten cheered, and even Lauren joined in.

Rendaevidmon glided gently back to earth, next to Kyle and the others, and looked around, sniffing. The Sentinel smiled. "It's not over yet..."

Suddenly, out of the pile of rubble, Raustemon jumped skywards again, launching himself straight at Rendaevidmon. Before anyone could react, the red dino grabbed onto Rendaevidmon's throat, yelled "Data Transfer!", and sank his teeth into the red dragon's neck. Rendaevidmon roared, and tried to swat the digimon away, but before his claws could reach the digimon, Raustemon burst into a cloud of data, and merged with Rendaevidmon.

"Yeah! Go Rendae... whatever your name is now!" Kirsten yelled as Kyle digimon, now victorious, de-digivolved back into Raustemon. Kyle started to walk over to his digimon, but stopped when he saw what his Raustemon was doing. "Raustemon? You okay?"

Raustemon lay on the ground, apparently writhing in pain, and didn't answer Kyle. Kyle heard the Sentinel man, hiding behind his sunglasses, approach, and glared up at him. "What did you do?"

The man smiled. "When our Raustemon bit yours at the end of the battle, he wasn't trying to attack him... he was transferring his knowledge to your digimon... knowledge that will make him return to us." He spread his hands as Kyle stared at him in shock. "So, you see, in the end, we don't really need to take your digimon from you. He'll simply come of his own free will."

Kyle looked down at Raustemon, as his twitching finally ceased. "No... that's... that's not true... I know he'll stay with us..." He looked up, looking the man straight in the eye (_eye, sunglasses... semantics_.) "Because he's our friend."

Raustemon's eyes shot open, and he struggled to his feet. He looked over at the Sentinel man. "So... I see you actually came out of your ivory tower..." Sparks traced along Raustemon's head. "Amusin..." Raustemon twitched again, and slumped to the ground.

The man in sunglass frowned. "This..."

Kyle crouched down next to Raustemon. "Raustemon...? You okay?"

The red dino's eyes fluttered open again. He smiled. "Of course! Why wouldn't I be?"

"So... does that mean you won't be going anywhere?"

The digimon frowned for a moment. "Does back to the parking garage with you count?"

Kyle laughed, and wrapped his arms around the digimon. "Raustemon... you're okay..." After a moment, he remembered that the Sentinel was still there, and looked up for him. He was surprised to see the man already halfway back to his pitch-black van, muttering something about 'incompetent programmers'.

Kyle got up, and turned around to see Kirsten and Lauren standing there, both smiling. Lauren cleared her throat. "Well... I guess the date's over, huh..."

Kyle grinned sheepishly. "Yeah... sorry about that..."

Lauren sighed. "It's okay..." she glared at Kirsten. "You two knew about these things, didn't you?"

Kirsten shrugged. "Yeah. So?"

"You... both of you... need to tell me what all of that was... right now." Lauren said.

Kyle heard the Sentinel's van drive off, and heard police sirens start in the distance. "Um, yeah, sure, but let's get out of here first, alright?"

Lauren nodded, and followed Kyle and Kirsten as they began to sneak away from the ruined restaurant.

Kirsten leaned closer to Kyle, and whispered "Can we just ditch her?"

Kyle shook his head. "No... she might as well know what's going on... after seeing all of that..."

Kirsten sighed. "Man... you mean I have to listen to her bitch from now on?"

Lauren's head suddenly poked between Kyle and Kirsten's. "Who's a bitch, now?"

Kirsten glared at Lauren. "You are, bitch."

Kyle sighed. "Do we have to do this again?"

Kirsten and Lauren's arguing continued as the group slipped away from the broken remains of the restaurant.

* * *

The man in sunglasses stood in the center of the empty room. "What happened? Why did it fail?" 

"...hmm... puzzling..." the same disembodied voice from before spoke.

Then a new voice sounded. This one had a hint of femininity to it. "You? Puzzled? That's a first..."

The first voice ignored her. "Perhaps... perhaps there is more contamination than I anticipated... friendship is certainly not powerful enough to cause a code failure of that magnitude..."

The walls lit up with brilliant code again. "I shall need to run a few tests... make sure to keep them busy in the meantime..."

The man in sunglasses bowed slightly. "Of course..."

The female's voice echoed through the room again, this time with a faint hint of laughter. "Got you whipped, hasn't he?"

The man frowned, but said nothing, and walked quickly out of the room.

* * *

Shadow- "Got another chapter out. A little bit later than I'd have liked, but... well, these things happen."

Renamon- (laughing from another room) "Yeah I'm still here!"

Shadow- "...she's playing Portal for the first time, in case you're wondering."

Renamon- "Don't effing apologize! You just shot me!"

Shadow- "...yeah. She's having trouble, by the sound of it. Well, I don't own digimon, (actually remembered the disclaimer this time...) so you don't get to sue. Sorry. Oh, and I'll try to get another chapter out within a week. Till then!"

(sound of gunfire)

Renamon- "...I guess she wasn't kidding about there being consequences..."


	14. One More Day

Kyle looked up at the now-familiar parking garage before him, and took a moment to think back over what had happened. _We somehow got Raustemon back here without Kirsten and Lauren killing each other... then school... (today's Friday... best day of the week...)... uneventful for a change. I'd forgotten what school was like without things exploding outside..._

Kyle sighed, and entered the garage. _One calm day, at least... that should be a good thing... but why do I feel like this is only the calm before the storm?_

Kyle rounded the corner, and found the way blocked by a apparently-solid wall. _Magusmon..._ "Okay, open up."

"What's the password?" Kirsten's voice came from behind the wall.

Kyle blinked. "Password?" _What password?_

The wall vanished, revealing everyone sitting there. Isaac (now with white hair) and Sara were talking quietly about something, Reto was typing on his digivice, Magusmon and Malcamon were talking in a corner, Raustemon was sleeping, and Kirsten was sitting there, smiling at him. "That's right! Looking stupid is the password!"

Isaac sighed. "Kirsten..."

Kirsten shrugged.

Kyle sat down next to Kirsten, as Reto looked up from his digivice. "Kirsten told me about yesterday, about the restaurant, so we don't need to go over that." He sighed. "What we do need... is a plan."

"Shouldn't we wait until everyone's here, first?" Isaac asked.

"Who..." Reto started, paused for a moment, then said "Oh, right, Lauren..." he looked over at Kyle. "Sara called Lauren earlier and told her where to meet us. So she should be here soon..."

Everyone was silent for a moment. Raustemon snorted, and he lifted his head, and saw Kyle. He smiled. "Kyle!" he hopped to his feet.

Kyle nodded at his digimon. "Hey Raustemon."

Raustemon nodded. "Lookie what I can do!" He held out one of his clawed hands. "Terra's Ire!"

A large spike of rock shot from the ground in front of him. Kyle felt his jaw drop. Raustemon poked his head around the rock. "It is good?"

"W-what..." Kyle stuttered, and looked around. Everyone else seemed as surprised as Kyle. Sara raised an eyebrow. "Isn't the attack that-"

Magusmon finished her sentence for her. "-Stratamon used against us a few days ago." He shrugged. "When he came back here last night, he showed Malcamon and me that, and said something about a voice telling him more stuff."

Isaac shook his head. "So... now he can copy abilities? ...I wonder if he has to absorb the enemy first, or whether he has to do something else..."

Kyle bit his lip. _When that other Raustemon tried again to activate my Raustemon's databanks, he must have triggered more things... _Kyle shook his head. _What else was Raustemon going to reveal about himself? And how did it fit in to what the Sentinels are doing?_

Before Kyle could think any further, he heard Lauren's voice echo through the parking garage. "Kyle? Hello? Anyone?"

Kyle started to answer, but Kirsten clapped her hand over his mouth. "No, wait!" she whispered, grinning. "Hey, Magusmon? Put the barrier back up!"

Magusmon looked over at Reto, who just shrugged, so Magusmon raised his hands. A shimmering curtain of air appeared between him and the rest of the garage. Kyle looked over at Kirsten, who snickered.

Lauren came around the corner, and stopped short at the apparent wall before her. She paused for a moment, mouth half open, then whispered "That lying little bitch..."

"Who's a lying little bitch?" Kirsten said, as Magusmon dropped then barrier. Lauren jumped back slightly, looking completely bewildered, then blushed. "Uh..." She shook her head, and growled. She stalked in, and threw herself down on Kyle's other side, opposite from Kirsten. Neither girl looked at the other. Kyle sighed.

Reto shook his head. "Right. Anyway, we need to figure out what to do about the Sentinels."

"The who now?" Lauren asked.

"Bad guys." Malcamon said. "The ones who attacked you yesterday."

Lauren shrugged. "Works for me."

Reto nodded. "Any ideas?"

"Just have Raustemon blow them up." Lauren suggested. "Easy."

Sara sighed. "We don't want to kill them... we just want to convince them that not all digimon are bad."

Lauren bit her lip. "I guess I better just stay out of this for now, huh?" she whispered to Kyle.

"Best idea you've had so far." Kirsten whispered back.

Lauren grimaced, but held her tongue, as Sara spoke next.

"Personally, I think we should do what we did last time. Sneak in through the tunnels, crack a few codes, and finish off their creation program. This time, for good."

Reto shrugged. "I guess. I doubt they're bright enough to have fixed anything since last time, seeing how obsessed they are with their own superiority."

"We could always wait, and see what they do next." Isaac suggested.

Reto shook his head. "No. We can't let them regroup. They- I think they're still off balance from what happened yesterday. They really seemed to think that was going to work, and since it didn't, I'm betting they're scrambling to come up with something else. We need to strike now."

Isaac thought for a moment, then nodded. "Okay. When do we attack, then?"

"Tomorrow." Sara said. "It's a weekend, so we're all free. It's perfect." She smiled. "Almost like it was supposed to be this way."

Reto nodded. "Okay. Everyone agree?"

Kyle, and everyone else but Lauren, nodded. Lauren just shrugged.

Reto nodded again. "Okay then. We'll all meet here tomorrow. One o'clock good?"

Again, everyone nodded. Lauren hesitated, then asked. "Should I go as well?"

Reto hesitated for a moment. "...if you want to, I guess."

Lauren glanced over at Kyle. "...yeah. I'll be there." She smiled lightly at Kyle, and he felt himself blush.

Reto nodded. "Okay. See you all here tomorrow."

Isaac got to his feet, followed closely by everyone else. Kyle heard Reto ask Sara to stay behind for a minute, to talk with him. Kyle walked around the corner, but stopped as he felt someone pulling on his arm. He turned, and saw Lauren there. She smiled at him again. He smiled back at her, and saw Kirsten walk by, rolling her eyes.

"Um..." Lauren started, "Look, about me yelling at you about before..." she bit her lip, looking away from him, then continued, "um... sorry. I didn't really know what was going on, and... I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions."

Kyle nodded. "It's okay, Lauren. I... well... everything been kinda weird lately, and... well, I just hope everything gets back to normal soon."

Lauren looked back at him, and nodded. "Yeah, me too..." after a moment of silence, she smiled again. "I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" she called over her shoulder as she headed for the entrance.

"Okay!" Kyle yelled back. He stood there for a moment, just smiling, until he heard someone behind him. "Quit being love-struck. You're blocking the path."

Kyle looked back, and saw Sara there. "Oh... sorry." He started to move out of the way but Sara shook her head. "We're going to the same place, remember? Might as well go together."

Kyle blinked, recalling that Sara lived in the same apartment building he did. "O-okay."

The two of them exited the garage, and walked down the street. After a few minutes, Kyle looked over at Sara. "...what were you and Reto talking about?"

Sara shook her head. "Some junk about how he wanted to stop by the young digimon at my place to make sure they're all okay." She shrugged. "There's nothing in there to hurt them, and they're always fine, so I don't know what he's worrying about."

"Oh..."

"I told him to concentrate on getting the passcodes to the building, but he seems pretty confident about them." She shrugged, paused for a moment, then sighed. "Well, he is really good with computers, so I guess it'll all work out..."

Kyle nodded. He looked up, and spotted their building up ahead. "Looks like we're almost ther- the fuck?!" Kyle jumped as he felt something move in his pocket. He looked down, and realized it was only his digivice, vibrating. He took it out, and saw the flashing words "New Mail!" on the screen.

Sara looked over. "Something new?"

"Maybe..." Kyle murmured, and hit the open button.

**Congratulations!**

On your failure.

Only kidding!

You win!

But the end is the beginning, right?

So you won the beginning.

Not much of a prize, is it?

At least compared with the end

of you.

So you keep the thirteenth

and time marches on

but how will you react

when you learn your purpose, pawn?

-a friend of a friend

Kyle and Sara stared at the message for a moment, then re-read it. Sara sighed, and then air brushed Kyle's cheek, making him realize how close they were standing. He carefully edged a little bit away, and Sara didn't seem to notice.

Sara shook her head. "That's weird... and why's..." she shrugged. "Whatever. Looks pointless to me." She continued walking down the street.

Kyle stared at the message a moment longer, wondering what it meant.

"Hey! Slowpoke!" he heard Sara yell. "You want to get home, or not?"

Kyle looked up, saw that she was half a block ahead of him, and ran to catch up, leaving the questions about the message behind.

* * *

Shadow- "ugh... just got back from ski trip... one thirty in morning... school starts day after tomorrow... got more to write to finish part up..."

Renamon- "Yeah. Shadow's tired, so, um... hopefully more chapters will be up soon."

Shadow- (passes out)

Renamon- "...probably should've moved that table... anywho, don't own digimon, leave a review, yadda yadda ect. You know the drill..."


	15. Infiltrate

Kyle slipped into the parking garage Saturday, just after lunch. He looked back, and watched as a few cars edged up the ramp and disappeared into the upper reaches of the garage. He shook his head. _Weird parking garage... why is it busier on a Saturday?_ He shrugged, and continued down to the meeting place, where he was supposed to meet the others to sneak into the Sentinel's tower, and somehow shut their digimon creation program down.

He rounded the corner, and saw that Magusmon had the shield up. Before Kyle could say anything, the mirage disappeared, revealing Reto, Sara, and Lauren sitting there. Sara waved. "Sorry about that... we got nervous when we heard the cars..."

Kyle nodded, walked in, and sat down next to Lauren to wait for Isaac and Kirsten. He looked over, and saw Malcamon talking quietly to Raustemon, who had his head cocked at an angle, listening in rapt attention. He felt Lauren grab his shoulder, and shake it lightly. "Hey," she whispered, "You okay?"

Kyle looked over at her. "Yeah... I'm fine."

Lauren looked down at the concrete. "It's just... it's all so sudden, you know? I just got here, and it's all going to be over..."

"Well, not over..." Sara said. "...but there won't be any fighting for a while after this. We still need to convince the Sentinels that all digimon aren't bad..."

"...and that won't be easy." Reto said, looking up from his digivice. "They've invested a lot of time into their programs... they won't give that up easily."

Sara nodded, and looked over to the entrance. "Oh, they're here!"

Kyle looked over, and saw Isaac and Kirsten walking inside the alcove. Reto nodded. "Good... now that everyone's here, we can get moving. Magusmon, Maclamon, Raustemon, you ready?"

Malcamon patted Raustemon on the shoulder. "Just like I told you, okay?" Raustemon nodded, and all three digimon leapt as one to the ramp's railing. The pattering of their jumps echoed lightly, and as they jumped higher and higher into the garage, they eventually faded.

Reto smiled. "Good. Follow us, everyone." He got to his feet, closely followed by Sara, and the two of them jogged around the corner. Kyle and Lauren hurried to their feet, and followed right behind Isaac and Kirsten.

The group jogged a few blocks, then turned right, staying on the sidewalk. Isaac and Kirsten fell back a bit, until they were nearly even with Kyle. Isaac looked over at Kirsten, who was struggling to keep up with the others' near-effortless pace. "Need some help?"

"Screw... you..." Kirsten panted.

Isaac looked back at Kyle, and raised an eyebrow. Kyle shrugged.

Up ahead, Reto and Sara had stopped at a light, waiting for the crossing signal. As Kyle and the others caught up to them, Kirsten put her hands on her knees, and gasped for breath. "I... fucking hate... all of you..."

Then the light changed, and they all started jogging again, Kirsten intermittently cursing. Kyle looked up, and caught sight of the giant black building with the sphere that dominated the rooftop that housed the Sentinels. _It's closer than I thought it was... a lot closer..._

After running for several more blocks, Reto and Sara finally stopped outside a small building across the street from the Sentinel's tower. As Kirsten caught her breath, Lauren asked "Why'd we stop here?"

Sara smiled. "We'll show you." She turned, and lead the group into the building, and to the elevators, where she selected an empty elevator, and then the basement floor. When the doors closed, Sara turned to Lauren. "When Reto first hacked in to the Sentinel's system, he found several emergency access points. Most of them were in case of fire and whatnot, and led into other buildings the Sentinel's owned, but this one..."

She paused as the elevator doors opened, and the group moved out into the dark basement. She started to talk again, but a grate clattered to the floor behind her, she jumped back, as three dark shapes fell to the floor, then sighed. "Malcamon, don't do that."

"Sorry."

Sara shook her head, turned back to the group, and continued. "This one was labeled 'emergency exit for chemical/biological catastrophe only', and connected to this building, which is privately owned."

Reto walked over to a small metal panel on the wall, pulled a laptop out of his back, and opened the panel, where he started messing with something inside. Sara continued: "The Sentinels helped pay for this building, apparently, and the owner lets them use the basement for their own needs. It's mostly for long-term storage of unimportant things, like office supplies and stuff, so it doesn't have any security, since all the boxes are locked in separate rooms, but it means there's only one level of security here between us and the Sentinel's tower."

"Got it!" Reto yelled as the wall next to the small panel slid aside, revealing a small, poorly lit hallway. He shook his head. "Same damn password... seven sevens..." He looked over at Sara. "After you."

She smiled. "Malcamon?"

The three digimon led the way into the tunnel, followed closely by Sara and Reto, then the others, with Kyle and Kirsten bringing up the rear.

"Ugh!" Lauren groaned as they entered the hallway. "What stinks?"

"You." Kirsten muttered, but no one but Kyle seemed to hear, as Sara said "The air in here is pretty stale. It hasn't been opened since we were last in here." She looked back at Lauren, and grinned. "You should have been here the first time..."

Lauren shuddered. "No thanks..."

Sara looked forward again. "Ah, here we are..."

Kyle peeked around, and saw a patch of ceiling with better lighting, right next to a dead end. Reto edged past, and tapped the seven key seven times. The wall slid apart. "Same here, too..." he muttered, and followed the digimon inside. Sara walked in as well, but looked back at the others. "...is there enough room for everyone?"

"We'll fit." came Reto's response.

Isaac and Lauren edged in, then Kyle did likewise, with Kirsten coming in last. Kyle grunted as Kirsten squeezed into his back to get inside. "Move, damn it!"

"Can't." Reto said as Kirsten finally fitted herself inside, and the door closed, activating faint red lights inside the room. "This isn't another hallway..." The room shook momentarily, then Kyle felt the floor drop out from under him. "This is an elevator."

Kyle winced as the falling sensation in his stomach continued. He felt his ears pop from the drop. He heard Raustemon mutter "I'm scared..." before the gravity seemed to return, and the car came to a stop. A moment later, the door opened, and Kirsten scrambled out of the tiny elevator. As Kyle and the others got out, she turned to Reto. "Dumbass idea, trying to fit us all into a fucking elevator."

Reto shrugged. "The schematics say that it should fit ten people... so I guess six people and three digimon take up more room than that..."

Kirsten shrugged. "Whatever..."

Kyle ignored Kirsten's fuming, and looked around. They were inside a gleaming white hall, the soft lighting coming from lights embedded in the edges of the ceiling, contrasting sharply with the red emergency lighting inside the elevator. He looked over at the elevator as it closed seamlessly back into the wall.

Reto checked his digivice. "Okay... according to the data, the 'dangerous project' area is over here." Reto pointed down the hallway to the left. The group followed him down a few hallways. As they walked, Kyle turned to Sara. "So... all of this is underground? Just how big is this place?"

Sara shrugged. "I don't know. We're well below the subway system, so they could have tunnels running through the entire city, as far as we know."

As Reto turned right at an intersection, Kyle looked down the other hallways. Every one of them were identical. "...I can see how you could get lost down here..."

Sara nodded. "Yeah... that's why Reto has a map of the places we went before in his digivice... so we don't make the same mistake we made last time we came here..."

"We're here." Reto said in front of them, and Kyle looked forward to see a dead end, but with a difference. This one had a glass wall at the end, with a clearly defined door in it. The room behind the glass was fuzzy, as the glass was frosted. Raustemon shifted uncomfortably as Sara nodded. "Okay, let's get inside."

Reto opened the door with a few taps to the door's keypad, and stood to one side as everyone else entered. Kyle looked around. The room was just a big empty white box. The only features in it were the door they had just come through, and a large mirrored black panel high on the far wall.

Raustemon suddenly growled. "This place..." he growled deeply. His eyes flashed, and he softly growled "What... is your name...?"

Sara ignored Raustemon, and looked around, puzzled. "Um... Reto?" she looked back, and saw that he was still waiting, just outside the door. "Did we take a wrong turn?"

"No." Reto replied.

"Then... why are we in a dead end?" she asked.

Reto smiled. "It's a trap."

The door suddenly slid into place between Reto and everyone else. A loud click echoed through the room, then dead silence.

* * *

Shadow- "...aaaaaaaaannnnddd cliffhanger ending!"

Renamon- "...you're obsessed with those things..."

Shadow- "They're fun! Oh, and sorry for being late with this chapter. I'll make it up by making this next chapter MUCH longer... if **SOMEBODY ACTUALLY READS THE DAMN THING!**"

Renamon- "...what?"

Shadow- "There are more people on my author alert list than people who read the last chapter! And NONE of them reviewed it! Seriously, everyone, I know I'm writing because I enjoy it, but come on! Less than eight hits? Where'd everybody go?!"

Renamon- "...I dunno... school?"

Shadow- "Eh... maybe... but people who have time to write don't have the same excuse...now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to sleep now. It's late, and crew has started back up. Which means a healthy dose of forced masochism for everyone! Yay! ...eh, can't fake enthusiasm..."

Renamon- "...okay... Shadow does not own digimon. And please read this story!"

Shadow- "...um... Renamon... if they're reading this... they're reading the story..."

Renamon- "Oh... um..."

Shadow- "See you next time, everyone..."


	16. Traitor

As the group filed into the large, empty white box of a room, Sara looked around, puzzled. "Um... Reto?" she looked back, and saw that he was still waiting, just outside the door. "Why are we in a dead end?"

Reto smiled. "It's a trap."

The door suddenly slid into place between Reto and everyone else. A loud click echoed through the room, then dead silence.

Sara gaped for a moment a the closed door, then ran over to it. "Reto!" she yelled. "Can you hear me?"

"Yes." came his slightly muffled reply.

"Hurry, get the door back open!"

Kyle heard Reto start laughing. "You really don't get it, do you? This is a trap. It would kinda defeat the purpose of it to open the door back up."

Sara's eyes widened. "R-reto... what... what are you doing?"

"Stopping you." Reto stopped laughing. "You have no idea what you are doing, Sara. The Sentinels... they're not evil. They're only trying to protect this world from evil digimon, to make the world safe for all of us!" Sara's shoulders drooped as she listened to Reto finish. "You really want me to help you, when you're fighting against the first, last, and only line of defense this world has?"

"You've got to be kidding me!" Kirsten shouted. "Open the doors up, dipshit, or I-" Kirsten broke off suddenly as she saw Sara start shaking.

"How long..." Sara whispered. "How long... were you working for them?"

"Since we first met." Reto stated matter-of-factly.

Sara shook her head. "Reto, you... what about the little digimon back at the safe-house? Cactarmon and the rest? You've seen what the Sentinels do to digimon! All digimon! How can you just give up on them?"

"Sara, relax! I had a talk with them. A team of Sentinels went there last night to g-"

"What?!?" Kyle flinched at Sara scream. "You son of a bitch!" They'll kill them!" She slammed her fist against the door. "Open this fucking door right now so I can rip of your fucking bastard arm off and beat you with it, then cut you open and string you up with your own wretched betraying guts, you motherfucking son of a bitch!"

Reto laughed. "Sara, the little digimon are fine! Don't worry about it! We'll take good care of them."

Sara's eye twitched. Raustemon shivered. "Scary lady..."

Reto continued: "So, Sara, as unlikely as it sounds, will you join us? We can do so much good together..."

Sara stood up straight, staring into the frosted glass. "No."

"No?"

"Did I stutter, you fucking little bitch?"

Reto's sigh was almost inaudible through the heavy, opaque glass. "It's a shame, really... Oh well, that was to be expected, I suppose." There was a pause for a moment, then: "I'm told that someone else is coming to try to convince you. You might know him. He likes mirrored sunglasses a lot." His footsteps echoed from the other side of the glass. "Till we meet again!"

Kyle looked hesitantly over at Sara. Her eyes were shaded by her hair. "Um... Sara? You okay?" he asked.

Sara turned around, leaned back against the closed door, and slid to the ground. "Shut up..." she whispered, her eyes fixed firmly on the floor. "Just shut up..."

After a moment of silence, Isaac cleared his throat. "Well, now what?" He looked around, surveying the room. The only thing of notice in the entire room was the mirrored black panel high up on the opposite wall. "I don't see another door... so how's he going to talk to us?"

Kirsten snorted. "I doubt they'll talk..."

* * *

Kirsten's voice sounded tinny, reproduced by small speakers: "I doubt they'll talk...""How right you are..." whispered the man in mirrored sunglasses, watching the five teens and two digimon from behind the one-way mirror set into the wall of the room they were trapped in. He sat for a moment, quiet, lit only by red emergency lighting, surrounded on three sides by panels of buttons and lights. The panel in front of him had a gap in it, where an odd contraption sat. It was a silver pedestal, the top of it just below eye-level to where the man sat. On its top was an aperture that glowed faintly violet, but staring into this light gave the impression of looking into infinite depth, almost as if one could be sucked inside it and disappear forever. Behind the man in sunglasses was a door, which opened a moment later. The man with the sunglasses didn't turn to greet him, but simply flipped a switch on the panel, silencing Kirsten mid-sentence. "Hello, Who." 

The man sighed. "Do we have to use codenames here?"

The man in sunglasses smiled. "No. Would you prefer I call you 'Sara's father'?"

The man sighed. "Don't start with that again... you already know I have no loyalties to her..."

"Never hurts to be safe, Lucas..." The man in sunglasses replied. "...and speaking of safe... I'd like you to watch a little demonstration..."

Lucas, Sara's father, nodded. "I was wondering what you called me down here for. Research isn't really my expertise, you know..."

"I know. But what is about to happen-" the man frowned as the pedestal's faint violet light suddenly warmed to a brilliant orange, and the image of a woman appeared there. She wore no clothes, but at the same time she did not appear naked, as her body seemed to be almost one continuous line. Her hair was short, almost boyish, and she frowned and crossed her arms when she saw both men. She stared at the man in sunglasses. "Don't you think this is cruel, forcing him to watch his daughter die?"

The man in sunglasses ignored her comment. "Lucas, say hello to Joyeuse. She's our newest toy: an AI."

Lucas's eyebrows went up. "You mean we've mastered the technology?"

The man shook his head. "Hardly. We simply created a digimon, but left out all that nasty corporeal business that's been giving us so much trouble."

"Fascinating... but what'd it mean by 'watch my daughter die'?"

"Excuse me." Joyeuse said in a huff. "I believe you mean 'what'd SHE mean'. I have feelings, you know."

"Um... sorry...?"

"As to what I meant: I was saying that Nothing brought you here to watch your daughter be a part of, and die in, his latest experiment."

Lucas looked over at the man in sunglasses. "You're going to kill them? Why?"

"They're a nuisance." He replied. "They've outlived their usefulness, and if they escaped, they could raise suport for the digimon, based off those silly little things they tried to hide from us outside the city." Lucas looked at him quizzically, but let him continue. "Furthermore, it provides a perfect test of your loyalties... which are still suspect." he looked over at Joyeuse. "If you would?"

The AI sighed. "I suppose you're going to make me throw the switch, right?"

"Precisely."

"Okay, here goes..." Joyesue snapped her fingers. As a large panel in the floor in the room behind her began to open, she added "You probably don't want to watch this, Lucas. It's going to be... um... messy..." she sighed, muttered something about 'overkill', and vanished.

The man in sunglasses smiled. "Spirited, isn't she?"

Lucas didn't answer. He was focused on the thing rising out of the floor... and his daughter standing across the room from it.

* * *

"Come on..." Kirsten growled. "Do something already!" 

Kyle looked up from where he had been sitting, trying to get Sara to talk to him. "Kirsten, can't you be quiet for a minute?"

Kirsten looked back at him, and the others. Kyle glanced around for a moment instead of meeting her eyes, and saw Isaac sitting by himself, looking at his hands, and Lauren trying to talk to the two remaining digimon, as Magusmon had stayed behind with Reto. He looked back at Kirsten in time to see her sigh. "Sorry, I guess..." She walked over, and sat on Kyle's other side. Her head thumped against the wall behind her as she looked up at the ceiling. "Just wish we could get moving... it would take her mind of Reto, at least..."

Kyle nodded, but as usual, Kirsten couldn't leave well enough alone. She peeked around Kyle to Sara, and grinned. "Must be hard, losing your boyfriend like that, huh?"

Sara didn't respond.

Kirsten's smile fluttered, then inverted. She sighed. "Oh come on!" she yelled. "Laugh, yell, do something, damn it!" She shook her head. "Don't just sit there... don't do nothing... you're gonna get me all depressed next..."

Kyle heard Isaac chuckle weakly. "You? Depressed? now that's something I'd like to see..."

Kirsten growled. "Shut u-" but stopped, and stared at the far side of the room. "Well, finally!"

Kyle looked over, and saw the floor splitting into two panels, and moving away to reveal a hole in the floor about ten square meters across, although it was difficult to tell the exact size, as the size of the empty room made it appear small.

Isaac got up. "Why do I have a bad feeling about this?"

Kyle saw Sara move out the corner of his eye, and looked to see Sara raise her head to look at the hole that appeared in the floor. As Kirsten got up, Kyle helped Sara to her feet. Sara leaned on Kyle heavily, as if she didn't have anything to stand on. "I'll bet you a date that that's not the welcome wagon..." Kirsten muttered.

A deep growl echoed from the hole, as if to confirm her statement.

Kirsten grinned weakly. "Looks like you lose..." she muttered as a dark shape rose out of the ground before them.

The deep growl repeated as the creature rose smoothly up through the parting floor. The digimon was covered with, or perhaps was made entirely of metal, but not the typical robot-like sections of metal. Instead, the metal covered the entire digimon evenly and smoothly from head to toe, excepting eye slits through which cold blue eyes stared at them, and faintly glowing sapphire slits on its upper arms. It was unclear where the growl had originated from, as the area where a mouth would be was sealed over flawlessly with fluid metal. The digimon resembled a dragon more than anything else, but a very human-like dragon, with its wings stunted, fragile, more for decoration than any real purpose, and the metal that covered it appeared to be liquid, still flowing across the surface, giving an overall impression of fragility to the digimon. The digimon growled again, but it seemed almost musical, as if it was humming a barely remembered song. Below it, the ground closed back up, and Kyle saw that the digimon was floating motionless above the ground, with no apparent effort.

"That's strange..." Kyle heard Sara whisper. He turned, and saw that she had taken out her digivice with her free hand, the other continuing to support herself against him. "There's no data of this digimon in here... all it say is 'Gravimon'..."

Kirsten laughed. "Oh, come on! That's it? It looks ready to fall apart on its own! That's pathetic!"

Malcamon nodded. "Whatever that thing is, its not going to be there much longer." Malcamon leapt towards the digimon. "Thunder Claw!"

* * *

In the observation room above, Lucas' opinion mirrored that of the teens. "That's it? That's what you're going to kill them with?" he shook his head. "Some experiment..." 

"Things are not always what they seem..." The man hiding behind his mirrored sunglasses said. "Observe..."

* * *

As Malcamon's leap brought her within ten meters of the digimon, the glowing slits on the creature's upper arms flashed once. The air around Malcamon warped, and the cat digimon shot sideways, slamming into the wall. Kyle's eyes didn't stay with Malcamon long enough to see what happened next, however, as Raustemon opened his mouth and yelled "Rauste Flare!" 

The bolt of fire shot directly at the digimon, but again, when the shot was ten meters away, the air around the attack warped, and the attack swung in a circle around the digimon. When it had traveled three quarters of the way around, the air around the attack returned to normal, and the attack continued straight on... and impacted Raustemon square in the chest.

"No! Raustemon!" Kyle yelled. He was about to run over to him, when he remembered that he was still supporting Sara. He looked at her, and saw her staring where Malcamon had landed, her eyes wide. Kyle turned to look, and saw Malcamon floating a few feet off the ground. The cat digimon was flailing about, trying to move, but had nothing to push off against.

"What...?" Kyle started, but was chocked off when he felt butterflies erupt in his stomach.

"What the hell?" Kirsten yelled, and Kyle felt himself slowly lift off the ground.

* * *

"Now do you see?" The man in sunglasses asked. Lucas stared through the window in horrified fascination. The entire group of teens had lifted off the ground, as had their two digimon, and all remained hanging essentially motionless in the air, unable to do anything. 

Joyeuse's hologram reappeared. "Obviously, he doesn't. The digimon you see down there is named Gravimon - the gravity digimon." She smiled faintly. "Not a very original name, but at least you know what he can control - and I thought I told you not to watch."

"Sorry..." Lucas muttered, his eyes still focused on the teens through the window. One teen in particular. His fist clenched. "Sara..."

* * *

When he first lifted up into the air, Kyle had let go of Sara in surprise, and now was finding that she was slowly drifting away from him. The only one who didn't seem completely shocked was Isaac, who told them that the digimon, Gravimon, must somehow be able to control gravity, and that they were now floating in zero G's. 

Kirsten sighed, floating sideways with her arms crossed. After a few initial comments about how she was glad to not be wearing a skirt, she was apparently out of things to say, and was starting to get bored. "This digimon sure takes its time, huh?"

"We should probably be glad for that..." Isaac muttered.

Kyle nodded. Suddenly, he felt the gravity return, and fell... sideways. Kirsten was the only one lucky enough to land on her feet. She looked over at the black patch on the wall. "Are... we standing on a wall now?"

Suddenly, the gravity shifted again. The group fell to the other side of the room. Then the gravity changed again. And again. And again, each time sending them flying harder into another wall. Kirsten looked pale. "I think I'm gonna be sick..."

Isaac shook his head as they continued to slam into different walls. "Its just hitting us into walls faster and faster... eventually, it'll do it so hard that we'll just smash into a wall like a bug hits a window of a moving car..."

Hearing this, Maclamon made another attempt to reach the digimon, but fell short, and fell into the next wall even harder. Kyle felt the wall smash into his side, and grimaced. He felt his digivice light up.

**DIGIVOLUTION**

"Raustemon... digivolve to... Raevidmon!"

The slamming around ceased as the digimon stared at Raustemon's new form, as if calculating what to do next. Raevidmon growled. "Playtime's over! Raevid Explosion!"

The blast of energy rocketed towards the enemy, but it again just warped around Gravimon, and crashed back into Raevidmon. As the smoke cleared, Raevidmon struggled to stand, while the gravity digimon just looked on, impassively.

Maclamon snarled. "I'll wipe that thing out! Dark Nightmare!"

Gravimon's eyes widened, but after a moment went back to normal. A faint purple haze whirled close around the digimon, less than a meter from it, and the digimon quickly redirected the attack back at Malcamon. Malcamon fell to the ground, twitching, victim of her own attack.

"Huh..." Sara muttered. "I didn't know that anything was actually shot by that attack..."

Isaac frowned, and appeared deep in thought. After a moment, he turned to Raevidmon. "Hey, Reavidmon... in your ultimate form, what's the beam you shoot made out of?"

Raevidmon stare blankly back at him. "Um... light? I think?"

Isaac nodded. "Good..." he turned to Kyle. "Kyle! Make him digivolve again!"

"Why?"

"Malcamon's attack almost got through to him. He was only able to stop it at the last second." Isaac explained. "Raevidmon's attack at the next level is made of light, and light travels faster than anything else in existence, so that digimon might not have time to react, and-"

Sara smiled. "And we blow it right out of the sky!" Kyle looked over at her. The glitter was back in her eye. She seemed almost back to her normal self. "Let's do it!"

Kyle looked at the others. All of them seemed eager to try it. Kyle shook his head. "That's great... just one problem: I can't control when he digivolves."

Sara's face fell for a moment, then lit back up. "Digimon seem to digivolve when the owner of their digivice is in trouble, right?" She held up her fist. "So, if I hurt you..."

Kyle started backing cautiously away from Sara. "Um... that doesn't sound like a good idea..."

Lauren glared at Sara. Sara ignored her, and grinned at Kyle. "Aw, c'mon, wuss. At least try it!"

Before Kyle could respond, Gravimon growled musically again, and it started to throw them back and forth between the two walls again, harder than before. Kyle slammed into the far wall, then slammed into the next, as the group was flung around the room. After a few more throws, they slammed into the wall so hard Kirsten cried out in pain. Kyle gritted his teeth, and glanced over at Raevidmon. _Come on, damn it... digivolve already..._

The air around them warped heavily, and Kyle felt himself shoot across the room at high speed, much faster than before. He looked up, and saw for a fraction of a second as the next wall came speeding towards-

**DIGIVOLUTION**

"Raevidmon... digivolve to... Rendaevidmon!"

Kyle felt himself hit something soft, not the metal wall that he had been hurtling towards moments ago. He opened his eyes, and saw that Rendaevidmon had caught all of them, saving them from being crushed against the wall. He looked back at Gravimon, who simply stared at Rendaevidmon.

Kirsten laughed. "All right! Let's do it!"

Rendaevidmon looked down at Kyle. Kyle nodded. Rendaevidmon opened his mouth. "Rendae Blaster!"

Gravimon's eyes narrowed, and the air in front of him warped. Then all hell broke loose.

* * *

Lucas watched Raevidmon digivolve, then fire his attack. Suddenly, the window in front of them polarized, and blast screens slammed in from the sides, blocking their view. The man with the sunglasses cursed. "What happened?" 

Joyeuse's hologram snapped on. "Why did the emergency systems activate?!" The man yelled at her.

The monitors on all started flashing red, and text scrolled rapidly across them. Joyeuse's reply scrolled along the bottom of the screens as she spoke: "Singularity detected. Priority Alpha override: code Atlas. Infinite (?) gravity field detected. Countermeasures: ineffective. Begin lockout code 09916040."

Lucas raised an eyebrow. "What does all that mean?"

"In laymen's terms, Gravimon created a black hole." Joyeuse replied. "To try to redirect a light-based attack. The stress would have destroyed the window, and likely would have killed both of you in the process. Attempting system override: restoring camera systems..."

* * *

Immediately after Rendaevidmon's attack, Kyle suddenly felt this enormous pull towards Gravimon. Somehow, Rendaevidmon had managed to dig his claws into the metal below him, and held all of them in his arms. Kyle felt as if a giant hand was pressing against his chest, sucking the breath out of him with a monstrous rushing noise. He looked up, and saw Rendaevidmon's attack, a beam of light, twirling impossibly fast around something invisible in midair. Just behind it, Gravimon floated with some apparent effort, as his arm slits with glowing brilliantly. Gravimon cocked his head at his creation, apparently confused. 

Kyle heard metal creak, and looked down to see the metal below Rendaevidmon's feet start to give way. _Shit... if that gives way, we'll be sucked into Rendaevidmon's attack... maybe worse... _He gulped. _Please don't fail... please..._

He heard the screeching of failing metal, and winced, but the sound didn't come from below. He looked up, and saw an entire section of the ceiling above them give way, and hurtle right for the strange thing Gravimon had created... with Gravimon right in its path.

The wall section slammed into Gravimon's back. The digimon's metallic skin rippled, and Gravimon flinched away from the wall, its eyes wide. The wall continued on, however, pushing Gravimon into its own creation. Centimeters from the center around which Rendaevidmon's attack circulated, Gravimon and the wall behind him froze, suspended, the digimon's eyes wide, its face warped forwards by the immense gravity.

There was a brilliant flash of light, and Kyle shielded his eyes for a moment. He felt the pull towards the center of the room lessen. He reopened his eyes. The strange thing in the center of the room had disappeared, along with Gravimon, and his gravity effects were disappearing with him. Rendaevidmon loosed his grip from the metal, and de-digivolved back to Raustemon. Kyle looked around, and saw that everyone was okay. Above them, the hole in the ceiling gaped wide, and on the lefthand wall, the black rectangular panel, now cracked, stood on its side. _Wait... something doesn't feel right..._

As the last of Gravimon's effects dissapated, the teens and digimon fell off the wall the had been standing on, and landed face first on the true ground. Kyle winced as he got to his feet. "Well... that was fun..."

Isaac shook his head as the others got up as well. "Gravimon must have made a black hole to try to stop Rendaevidmon's attack, and got sucked into his own defense." He smiled. "Worked perfectly."

Kirsten glared over at him. "You mean you KNEW that would happen?!"

"Well, it was-"

"You little bastard!" Kirsten yelled. "You almost got us killed!"

Sara shook her head. "At least it worked... did you have a better idea?"

Kirsten grimaced. "I'll think of something... just to prove you wrong..." she growled.

"Um... guys?" Lauren said, cutting in before the argument went any further. "There's a hole in the wall over there... do you think we could maybe escape through it?"

Kyle glanced over. The chunk of wall that had knocked Gravimon into his own black hole had left behind a gaping hole in the wall, revealing an empty hallway. Kyle looked over at the others. Kirsten grinned. "Race you!" Everyone took off running, glad to get the hell out of there.

* * *

The viewscreens snapped on just in time to give the two men a shot of the digidestined escaping through a hole in the wall. The man with the sunglasses growled. "Damn it..." 

Joyeuse ignored him. "Black hole confirmed. Scanning... all traces have decayed. Safeguards from Project Bandersnatch holding... all radiological contamination has been suppressed. Confirmed destruction of prototype."

"Some good news, anyway..." Lucas muttered.

The man in sunglasses ignored him. "Where are the interlopers headed now?"

"Scanning..." Joyeuse's eyes widened after a moment. "They're... headed for the containment area for Project Subtle! If they damage the equipment, the testing could be ruined! Even if they only decoupled the magnetic resonance coils, they could set us back-"

The man with the sunglasses cut the AI off. "Can you run the next test ahead of schedule?"

Joyeuse paused for a moment. "Calculating... Yes. But the shakedown of the antimatter chamber is incomplete, and seventy-two percent of the electronics have yet to be tested."

"Do it." the man replied. He muttered "If it fails, it'll kill all of them... if it succeeds..."

* * *

Kyle ran down the hallway, following closely behind Sara. After taking a left turn, the hallway had continued unabated. Ahead, however, was the first difference: a doorway. When they reached it, Sara jiggled the handle, and found that it was locked. She sighed. "Well, I guess we'd better head back... try to find a better..." he voice trailed off as the door emitted a soft click. She tried the handle a second time, and found that the door had unlocked itself. 

Isaac frowned. "I don't like this..."

Kyle looked back down the hallway. "...They won't let us have the run of this place for long... they probably've already sent out search parties, looking for us... and they'd all start back in that room."

Isaac shook his head. "I guess... but... something still doesn't feel right..."

Sara shrugged. "Are we going on, then?"

Kyle, Kirsten, and Lauren nodded. Isaac hesitated for a moment, then nodded as well.

Sara nodded. "Good." She opened the door.

The hallway they entered looked completely different from the pure, untarnished white of the previous halls. The walls, floor, and ceiling were pitch black, lit only by faint blue lighting being given off from gigantic cables snaking and crisscrossing on the walls, floor, and ceiling. Kirsten almost tripped over one of them in the dim light, and cursed at it. Sara cautiously led the group through the hall for a while, until a humming noise, similar to the musical growls of Gravimon, could be heard reverberating through the walls.

Sara stopped. "...what's that noise?" she hesitantly asked.

Lauren shuddered. "I don't know... but it's almost... hauntingly beautiful...somehow..."

Isaac shrugged. "Sounds like machinery to me. We should keep going, find out what's causing it."

Sara hesitantly nodded, and started walking again. After another minute or so, they caught sight of a brighter light shining in front of them. After a few more steps, the group emerged in a large room, not quite as large as where they had fought Gravimon, but large nonetheless. The cables that had snaked across the floor and walls in the hallway twisted their way forward, some ending at the base of a structure before them, some snaking up the walls to leap off, connecting to a large disc hanging above the structure. The light they had seen came from the metallic, high-tech looking disc, which held below it a small sphere of light that twisted between all the colors of the rainbow, as if indecisive as to which one to choose. Steps led up the side of the base of the structure, culminating in a platform about a meter off the ground, which was large enough to comfortably hold two dozen people, maybe more.

Kirsten grinned hesitantly as she looked around. Two more hallways led out of the room besides the one they had entered through. She looked up at the colossal machine. "So... what do you think it does?"

As if in response, the ball of light hanging under the top disc suddenly flashed brilliant white, and held constant. The entire room was cast into light and shadow as Kyle shielded his eyes. He suddenly became aware of the musical humming again, coming from all around them.

Sara's head whipped back and forth, looking for the source. Lauren spoke up. "It's coming from the hallways!"

Kyle looked down the nearest hallway, dark compared with the brilliant light behind him. Suddenly, the hallway filled with similar light, and the light shot right at him.

Kyle found himself surrounded by pure white light, and felt himself being pushed backwards. He heard Sara yell something, couldn't understand it, but knew they were all in the same boat. He found himself floating, being turned around, and being pushed towards the large machine all at once. The ball of white light above had crystalized into the robin's egg blue of the sky, and after a moment, the ball expanded to a giant sphere right in front of him.

Kyle knew the others were right next to him, being pushed towards the sphere of light with him, but didn't turn to look. He couldn't, not with it right before him... so beautiful... impossibly beautiful... _Impossible..._

* * *

Joyeuse stood with a hand to her ear, as if listening, while Lucas and the man with sunglasses watched her. She finally nodded. "Project success. Dimensional rift opened... passage successful... error... magnetic systems misaligned... system holding... holding... system failure. Cutting power." The red emergency lights snapped off, as did Joyeuse's hologram, but her voice continued. "Damage report... total electronic system failure. Estimated repair time: one month plus." 

The man with sunglasses' voice came out of the darkness. "Start the repairs immediately. And turn the lights back on."

"Working..."

The lights did not immediately return. Lucas cleared his throat. "What... what did that project do? What happened to the kids?"

"The system was designed to open a dimensional rift to another world... a world we've been trying to reach ever since this damn fight started." He chuckled. "Congratulations, actually. Your daughter is one of the first humans ever to travel there."

"Travel where? Where did you send them?"

"To the home of the digimon: the digital world. And once Joyeuse finishes the repairs, we'll travel there ourselves with an army of our own digital creations..." the lights snapped back on, and Lucas found the man with sunglasses had an odd grin on his face. "...and kill every single last digimon."

* * *

Shadow- "I promised this chapter would be longer."

Renamon- "...well... mission accomplished, I guess..."

Shadow- "Technically, this is kind of an 'end of part one' kind of thing, but I don't feel like making it official, so... well, the next chapters will be in the digital world, I'll say that much. Be on the lookout for them soon!"

Renamon- "Shadow does not own digimon, a-"

Shadow- "Oh! I almost forgot! The reason this chapter's so long is that I wrote it in three parts, as opposed to the usual 'write it all up in one go, then post it immediately' shpeal. Also, I feel like doing a contest. So, if you guess where the two points I left off at are, I'll give you a plushie.

Renamon- (hugging a Raustemon plushie) "They're so soft! And fluffy!"

Shadow- "And contain no lead! They're great! So, if you leave a review with your guesses, and you're right, you win! That simple."

Renamon- (now holding a Renamon plushie) "Can we just say everyone who guesses is wrong, so we can keep them?"

Shadow- "No, Renamon... Oh, and I'd also like to thank the people who've reviewed so far: Crazyeight, digi-writer1392, Renaki, FeintingFox, whatisee, Nameless Dragon, and Dag 417. Thanks!"

Renamon- "Till next time!"


	17. WAKE UP ALREADY!

_Impossible... This can't be... be real... can't be... impossible... beautifully impossible... be real..._

Kyle slowly groaned as he became aware of himself again. _Ah, my head... it feels like someone shoved me inside a cement mixer on overdrive..._ he tried to open his eyes, but winced at the bright light, so kept them squinted almost shut. _Blue... pretty blue... no, wait a moment here... that can't be right. We were inside. Lots of white. Not blue. Then that thing did something and then everything turned blue..._

He realized he was lying on his back. He was resting on his back on something soft. And tickly. And damp. He turned his head to the right. _Huh... green. Not blue..._

He raised his hand to the left side of his head to shield his eyes from the light, and managed to dampen the glow enough so he could see what he was seeing. _...trees? I think?_

The trees were glinting softly in the bright light from above, covered in dappling light slowly shifting as a breeze drifted through the upper branches. Below that, however, was a thick tangle of dark brambles that were a few meters tall. _Okay... a forest... that's new._

He heard someone else groan. He sat up gingerly, and found that doing so didn't hurt anything, besides bringing about a new bout of nausea, which passed quickly. He squinted toward the sound, and saw Kirsten lying on the ground, massaging her forehead. Next to her were Isaac, and Lauren, and a bit closer to him, Malcamon, all still knocked out. He looked over his shoulder, his eyes finally getting used to the light, and saw Sara right next to him, so close that she was probably lying against him before he woke up, and Raustemon a bit further on, also all out. He heard Kirsten shift around, and curse softly, and muttered "I guess this is what a hangover feels like..."

He looked back to her, and saw her sitting up carefully, as if any wrong movement could dislodge her fragile hold on awareness. She shook her head lightly, ran a hand through her blonde hair, and looked up at him. She stared at him for a moment, before looking around for the others. "Looks like we're the first ones awake..." she muttered, "...from whatever just happened."

When Kyle didn't answer, she looked around. "...a forest? ...that's original..."

Kyle looked around at the others. No one appeared to be hurt badly, though Sara had a few scrapes on her face, and Isaac had some leaves in his dyed-white hair, although that could easily have been from lying on the ground.

Kyle turned back to Kirsten as she got to her feet, and kicked Isaac gently. "Hey, c'mon now. Wake up." she grinned, and half-whispered, half-sang "Are you dead, or are you sleepin'?" When Isaac didn't react, she shrugged, and looked up at Kyle. "Oh, come on... you've never heard that song?"

Kyle shrugged, and looked back at Sara. He heard Kirsten kick Isaac again, harder this time, and mutter something when he didn't move. Sara looked peaceful, her longish black hair streaming over her face... but after a moment, Kyle shook her shoulder lightly, and she stirred, and pushed his hand away gently. "I don't want to get up, daddy..." she murmured. Her eyebrows clenched, and she frowned, rubbing the grass below her with her left hand. She cracked an eye open. "The hell?"

"Good morning... I guess." Kyle said, realizing halfway through that he didn't know what time it was. He looked at his wrist, and remembered he didn't wear a watch. He looked over at Isaac, who always wore one, but his wrist was bare as well. Kirsten was now rhythmically punching Isaac's shoulder to get him up, muttering "Wake up," every time she did so.

"Where are we, anyways?" he heard Sara ask from behind him. He looked back at her, and shrugged. "In a forest."

Sara sat up slowly, and glared at him. "I got that much, thanks." she muttered sarcastically. She looked around, then asked "How long was I out?"

Again, Kyle shrugged.

Sara snorted. "Some help you are..."

Kirsten looked up from Isaac, apparently just noticing Sara was awake. "Any ideas on how to wake up lazy-ass over here?"

Sara shrugged. "Just one. Plug your ears."

Kyle frowned. "Why-"

"**WAKE UP ALREADY**!"

Isaac jumped up, and yelled something, but Kyle didn't really care. He was clutching his ears and praying that they weren't bleeding. He heard Sara say. "Told you..."

Kyle shook his head, and the ringing in his ears mostly subsided. He looked over at Isaac, now awake, yelling at Kirsten. Lauren was sitting half-up, her brown hair slightly askew, her brown eyes sleepy, looking around confused. She looked over at Kyle, and he shrugged. Malcamon was yawning and stretching, and he heard Raustemon behind him get up.

Isaac finally stopped yelling at Kirsten, and Malcamon mewed loudly, and looked around. She paused. "...why... why does this look familiar...?"

Sara walked over to her cat digimon, and picked her up. "I don't know... deja vu?"

Malcamon shivered slightly. "I don't know... it's weird, though..."

Kyle pushed himself to his feet finally, and Lauren followed suit a moment later. "How long were we asleep?"

Isaac looked down at his wrist, and frowned. "That's weird..." He dug into his pocket, and looked at his cellphone. He frowned. "No service... and the clock's haywire."

"Haywire how?" Sara asked.

"Haywire as in the clock is displaying letters." Isaac shrugged. "I don't know how we'll find out the time... not that it really matters, I suppose..."

Kyle suddenly realized something. "Hey, my digivice has a clock! Why don't I just-"

"Internal clock: positive seven days, one hour, twenty eight minutes." Raustemon said.

Everyone stared at him. Raustemon cocked his head. "What? The voice told me!"

Sara rubbed her forehead, and squeezed her eyes shut. "I can't deal with schizophrenia this early..."

Isaac shook his head. "O...kay... um, Kyle, just check your digivice..."

Kyle pressed a button on his digivice, and immediately it vibrated. The words "New Mail!" flashed on the screen. Sara raised an eyebrow. "What, has somebody decided to send you an insane message again?"

Kyle shrugged, and pressed the open button.

**Testing... Testing... 1... 2... 4...**

This is a test of the insane-o-meter.

Ding!

You're insane!

Thank you for participating in this wonderful psychological experiment.

Don't expect any cake.

-A friend of Judas

"Yeah..." Sara sighed. "Insane, as usual. Kinda like Raustemon, in a way."

"Um... yeah..."

"Hey, Kyle?" Isaac said. "The time?"

"Oh, right!" Kyle pressed a few buttons, and the messages disappeared. A glow momentarily surrounded the digivice, then faded. The home screen popped up. Kyle read off the time and date:"3:48 PM, October 8th."

There was silence for a moment. Kyle blinked, and looked back down. "Wait, what?"

Lauren squinted at him. "Um... it was October 1st the day we attacked the Sentinels... right?"

Isaac nodded. "So... we were out for seven days?" he frowned. "But if that's true... why aren't we hungry? Or thirsty? Or dead, for that matter?"

"Internal clock loading..." Raustemon said. "Error: time anomaly. Internal/External difference of seven days, zero hours, zero minutes."

Kirsten growled. "Can we stop being insane for a few minutes and figure out where we are? Please?"

Sara looked around at the forest around them. The bushes around them were taller than they were. "Easier said then done... the underbrush is really thick here..." She spun slowly around in a circle. "...there's no tire tracks, or anything showing how we got here, or any kind of a path out..." she frowned, and muttered "...how the hell did we get in here, then...?"

Isaac shook his head. "Just another mystery to add to the collection, I guess..."

Lauren looked at the bushes, then looked at Raustemon. "Raustemon? Can you use your 'flare attack' thing?"

Raustemon nodded. "Raust Flare!"

The bolt of fire impacted in the nearby brush, (narrowly missing Kirsten, who squealed loudly) setting it ablaze. Within a few seconds, the brush had burned away, leaving them a partially clear path forward in the charred remains.

Sara grinned. "There we go! Keep it up, Raustemon!"

Raustemon continued firing fireballs into the brush, clearing the path for them completely.

Isaac shrugged. "That works. Let's get going."

Kyle stared at the fire for a moment. _Since when does fire look pixilated?_ He shrugged, and followed the others.

* * *

After following Raustemon for a few minutes, setting the entire forest around them ablaze, Malcamon shivered slightly in Sara's arms. Sara looked down. "Everything okay?"

Malcamon shook her head. "This feels... all wrong, somehow..."

"You mean setting an entire forest on fire so we can leave?" Kirsten grumbled, still a bit annoyed from Raustemon's near-miss earlier.

"Well, yes... but more than that..." Malcamon said. She looked around, then continued "I can't help but feel that I've been here before. What about you, Raustemon?"

Raustemon paused from shooting fireballs for a moment. "Nope. No idea." he grinned. "Making fire is fun, though!" He continued shooting fireballs ahead.

Malcamon sighed. She started to say something else, but suddenly pricked her ears up. She stared hard off the side for a moment, then said "Raustemon, hold on a sec..."

Raustemon stopped firing.

Malcamon closed her eyes, and just listened. Everyone else froze, and listened. Kyle did, too, but couldn't hear anything above the slow crackling of the fires Raustemon had set.

Malcamon's eyes snapped open. "There!" she growled as she leaped out of Sara's arms, towards a small yellow furball hiding in the un-burned bushes near them. The furball squeaked, and vanished into the bushes. Malcamon scrabbled after it, and vanished as well. All Kyle could hear were cracking sticks for a moment, and the panicked mewling of the small creature, before a loud crack sounded, and Malcamon flew back out of the bushes, knocking Sara over. The yellow furball appeared again, and stuck a tongue out at Malcamon. Then something larger pushed the brush aside above the furball and Kyle got his first good look at Malcamon's attacker.

The creature, obviously a digimon, was fox-like, but stood lightly on its hind legs. Standing as it was, on the balls of its feet, it was nearly as tall as Kyle. The digimon was a dark golden color interspersed with the occasional slashes of light gold and polished sapphire. The digimon's paws were larger proportionally than a fox's as well, and each finger looked like it had been dipped in black paint. The digimon's tail was likewise colored. Its ears were perky, tipped in black, very much like a fox, but its eyes were surrounded by a black streak, like it was wearing a robber's mask. The digimon's eyes glowed a faint cool violet as the digimon stared back at them.

The digimon gave them all a once-over, then focused for a moment on Malcamon. "Don't you ever... ever... attack my little sister..." The digimon growled in a faintly masculine tone. "You got that?"

Malcamon quickly nodded.

Sara laughed nervously. "We're sorry about that... we don't really know where we are right now, and, well..." her voice trailed off.

The digimon snorted. "Right... well, whatever..." He looked over at Raustemon. "By the way, could you stop setting our forest on fire? Thanks."

Kyle looked around. The fire Raustemon had set continued to blaze away in front of them, burning more and more of the forest. "Should we do something about that?" Kyle asked.

"I was planning to." The fox digimon turned to where the fire was blazing, and held out his hands in front of him. "Inrigare Fluer!" A stream of water blasted out of his hands, dousing the flames. A few moments later all of the fires were out.

Kirsten grinned. "Nice!"

The fox digimon bowed slightly. "'tis a family trait. Unfortunately, my family may not live many more generations."

"What'd you mean?" Sara asked.

The digimon's eyes widened. "You really don't know? ...you really aren't from around here, aren't you?" He frowned for a moment, then nodded, as if he'd come to a decision. "Come, follow me. I'll let the Elder decide what to do."

The digimon turned, and walked back through the bushes. The little yellow furball followed.

A light ding sounded. Sara said "Vicanmon. Level rookie... that's odd. Under element it just says 'varies'." Kyle looked over, and saw her reading off her digivice. "What does it mean, 'varies'?"

Lauren shrugged. "I dunno. It can use different element?" She shook her head. "...doesn't really matter, though. Should we follow him, or not?"

Isaac shrugged. "We don't really have a better choice, do we?"

"Okay then!" Kirsten yelled. "Then let's follow the stupid yellow fox!"

Kyle looked over at her. Kirsten grinned.

"Wizard of Oz reference?"

"Yup!"

Sara groaned. "How did you get that?...that's barely even a joke..."

Isaac shook his head. "Let's just get going..."

The group pushed its way through the forest, following Vicanmon.

* * *

Shadow- "Hey everyone! I updated!

Renamon- "Cool!"

Shadow- "Yeah, but what's not so cool is that nobody responded to the contest, so nobody wins. ...I'm not even sure anybody reads these end notes, anyways..."

Renamon- "Yay!" (hugs Renamon plushie) "We get to keep them after all!"

Shadow- "Yeah... well, today's April 6, and that means..."

Renamon- "...means... what?"

Shadow- "...you're kidding... right?"

Renamon- "Um..."

Shadow- "My birthday?"

Renamon- "OH! Oh. Um, I, um... I got you something!" (holds out the Renamon plushie)

Shadow- "...that doesn't count."

Renamon- "...how about I get you a Wii?"

Shadow- "Really?!"

Renamon- "jk! Can't get you one, not even with my magic!"

Shadow- (sighs) "...right... well, please review. Oh! I almost forgot! I'm in the process of editing the earlier 16 chapters (because of grammar complaints), so I'm not going to have another update soon. Sorry."

Renamon- "Shadow does not own digimon!"


	18. By Any Other Name

Kyle ducked low to avoid a broken branch that had somehow wedged its way into the underbrush he was working his way through. Ahead of him was Sara and Malcamon, then Vicanmon, (_with his little sister the furball sitting on his shoulder_) who was leading everyone through one of the pathways the fox digimon used to navigate the dense underbrush. Kyle stood up too soon, and knocked his head on the branch above him. The entire branch tore loose from the brambles around them, and came crashing down. Sara looked back. Kyle heard Kirsten mutter "Ow..."

Kyle turned back, and pushed the branch out of the way. Kirsten stood there, holding the top of her head and wincing.

"Well, this is fun..." Kirsten grumbled.

Vicanmon sighed. "Humans certainly are a clumsy bunch..." He shook his head. "...hard to believe that you caused all this..."

"Caused all what?" Sara asked.

"You shall find out soon enough." Vicanmon replied mysteriously. "...besides, the Elder's a much better storyteller than I am."

Kirsten snorted. "Right. Well, how much further?"

"About one hundred paces. So relax."

After crouch-walking a bit further, the brush around them receded, and Kyle found himself in a large clearing, several hundred feet across. The small furball that was Vicanmon's little sister jumped off his shoulder and bounced off into the village. He heard Lauren curse behind him as she stood up straight for the first time in about half an hour, her back popping loudly. He ignored her, however, because of the sight before him.

In the clearing was a village, or rather what used to be a village. The ground was blackened across the entire clearing, and the trees around the edges were badly burned. Large piles of burnt wood were scattered along the edges of the clearing, and the smell of smoke hung heavy in the air. The only structures in the clearing were simple ones, poorly put together, and obviously recently built. A group of Vicanmon next to the nearest structure had stopped talking, and were staring with soft and scared eyes at the group of humans that Vicanmon had led into the village. One of them scurried off towards the hut in the village center.

Isaac whistled. "Holy crap... did... did Raustemon?"

Vicanmon shook his head. "No. This happened several days ago."

A Vicanmon came out of the nearest hut, saw the Vicanmon talking to Isaac, and ran over to him. This Vicanmon was also colored dark gold, but was flecked with silver and scarlet instead of light gold and sapphire. The new Vicanmon spoke: "Saph, what happened? We saw smoke in the forest and thought..." his voice trailed off.

Kyle's group's Vicanmon (_Apparently named Saph. _Kyle frowned in annoyance. _Well, that's great. Now digimon can have names, too._) shook his head, and said "Tell the others not to worry, Sarr. It's not back."

Sarr nodded, relieved, and hurried over to the other Vicanmon.

After a moment where nobody moved, Lauren cleared her throat and asked "So... now what?"

"We wait while the Elder is contacted."

Another moment of silence. "So... you're name's Saph?" Sara asked. "I didn't know digimon had names."

Saph snorted. "Of course we do. Do you call your friends 'human' when you're speaking to them?"

"Kirsten sometimes does," Isaac said. "If she feels like annoying us."

Saph smiled. "Well, now that you know my name, what are yours?"

"Well, I'm Isaac, and this is Sara, Kyle, Kirsten, and Lauren. Oh, and Malcamon and Raustemon," Isaac smiled sheepishly. "But, um, I don't know their names."

Saph nodded. "That's fine. It really only matters when there are others of your type around."

"Really?" Kyle asked. "Huh. I wonder... hey, Raustemon, what's your name?" When Raustemon didn't answer, Kyle looked over his shoulder. Raustemon was chasing a bright blue butterfly in a circle. "Raustemon?"

"I dunno." Raustemon replied, never taking his eyes off the butterfly.

Kirsten sighed. "No surprise there..."

Sara looked down at Malcamon. "I didn't know you had a name besides Malcamon."

Malcamon nodded. "I do. But my type are very tribal. We don't share our names with outsiders." Sara frowned, and was about to speak when Malcamon quickly added "Outsiders are non-members of our tribe. I couldn't tell you unless you became part of my tribe."

Sara shrugged. "That's fine. How do I join?"

Malcamon smiled. "It's not that simple. First we'd need to find them, and I haven't seen them since I came to your world nearly a year ago. They could be anywhere by now."

Sara sighed. "Well, maybe we'll find them someday."

"Don't get your hopes up." Malcamon muttered.

Kyle heard the sound of drums begin in the center of the village. Saph coughed. "I... don't wish to interrupt, but I believe the Elder is ready for us now."

Kyle stared to follow the others to the center of the village, but looked back when he realized Raustemon wasn't with them. Raustemon was still chasing the butterfly in a circle. "Raustemon! Come on!" The others stopped for a moment while Kyle tried to convince Raustemon to forget the butterfly.

As Kyle tried to wrangle Raustemon, Kyle heard Saph tapping his foot impatiently. "Does Raustemon always get like this?" he asked Isaac.

Isaac sighed. "Only when there's something interesting." He added: "...and there's always something interesting."

Saph nodded. "My little sister can be the same way. Love her to death, but the first little distraction that comes along..."

Isaac nodded. "It's hard to believe that a dinosaur can have ADD..."

Meanwhile, Kyle stood exasperated next to Raustemon, who still wouldn't take his eyes off the butterfly. "Come on, Raustemon..." Raustemon shook his head and kept running.

The butterfly finally seemed to grow bored of being chased, and fluttered down to land on Raustemon's nose. Raustemon grinned, and turned to Kyle with the blue butterfly still on his nose. "Okay!"

Kyle sighed. _Why does it seem like he's getting more and more insane?_

With Raustemon finally in tow, the group headed for the center of the village, where about thirty Vicanmon were standing in a semi-circle in front of the central hut. A group of about ten of the small furballs played off to one side, and one of them bounced over to Saph. Sara took out her digivice and read "Vinmon. Level in-training... no type."

Saph nodded. "That's correct. Each family of Vicanmon has a different hereditary element, one that doesn't show up until the rookie stage. Little Azu here will, like me, have water-based attacks when she grows up.

"What about Sarr?" Isaac asked.

"Sarr is from a different family, so his element is different. His happens to be fire."

Isaac nodded, and was about to ask Saph another question when the drums ceased, and the door of the poorly-built hut in front of them parted. Kyle heard Lauren bite back a gasp as a digimon came out of the hut.

It was fox-like as well, but had a much more regal bearing than the Vicanmon did. It was colored a vibrant silvery-white with flecks of amethyst, crimson, and emerald. The raccoon mask the Vicanmon had was gone, though the paws and tips of the ears and fingers were still deep black. Also unlike the Vicanmon was the basic armor it wore, colored in shades of gold and covered in wispy shapes, with two interconnected circles gracing the front. The armor was very simplistic, apart from the colors, and appeared to be more for show than protection.

Sara started to take her digivice out again, but the digimon waved it away. "There's no need of that." The male digimon said in a voice that wavered slightly with age. "I am an Omelemmon. I am the Elder of this village... or at least, what is left of this village." His voice dropped away in sadness.

Sara cleared her throat, and started to say something, when Kirsten interrupted. "Hey, old guy. Where are we?"

"Kirsten!" Isaac hissed. "Show some respect!"

"You are in our world now, child. The digital world."

"The what now?" Kirsten said in confusion.

Sara covered her mouth in surprise. "Oh! I know! Malcamon told me about this place."

Malcamon groaned. "Ahh... I should've..." She shook her head. "So that's why it seemed familiar..."

"What's the digital world?" Isaac asked with considerable interest.

Saph answered first. "It is the home world of digimon... kind of like your home world, but populated by digimon instead of humans."

"And not nearly as advanced..." Kirsten muttered. "Have any of you ever heard of indoor plumbing?"

Saph blinked. "Indoor what?"

Lauren groaned. "Are you kidding? This is not cool..."

Sara winced, then turned back to the Elder. "Okay, on a different note... Omelemmon? What happened here? Why's everything burnt?"

The old digimon sighed. "Three days ago, the dragon who terrorizes this world finally came to our land. It began to burn our forest, but when the warriors of our village attacked it, it turned its attention to our village instead." He shook his head sadly. "The only ones of us who survived are the non-fighters, the females of the village, or those who are too young - or too old - to fight."

Kyle looked around. All of the Vicanmon seemed subdued, staring at the ground, not meeting anyone else's gaze.

"Who is this dragon?" Isaac asked. "Why is it doing this?"

The old digimon's eyebrows shot up. "Hm... you must be quite new to this world..." Omelemmon thought for a moment, then nodded. "Yes, I see why you brought them here now, Saph. I believe your judgement was correct."

Saph bowed slightly. "Thank you, Elder."

Omelemmon cleared his throat. "Yes. The dragon is called Incinincendemon." He smiled slightly. "You see why we usually just refer to him as 'the dragon'. He appeared in this world quite some time ago, when I was but a kit. He has since flown around the entire digital world, burning everything in sight, until all the digimon of old have been destroyed." The Elder sighed. "...all, of course, except one crafty old digimon. But more on him later."

The Elder shifted slightly, then continued. "Something strange has been happening as of late to those villages attacked by the dragon. In the past, survivors were free to rebuild. But now... now, when a village is attacked, the survivors mysteriously disappear a few days later."

"What happens to them?" Sara asked. "If the dragon comes back, we can stay and..." her voice trailed off as Omelemmon shook his head.

"No, no. I must not keep you here long. You have a journey to make, and a prophesy to fulfill."

Lauren perked up. "Prophesy? What prophesy?"

Isaac snorted. "There's no such thing as prophesies."

Saph nodded.

The old digimon nodded as well. "Yes, I believe you may be right... but the writings have been correct to date, so who knows? I have been wrong before."

Isaac shook his head. "So we charge off following the writings of some Nostradamon? Count me out."

Lauren ignored Isaac. "So... about this prophesy...?"

Omelemmon shrugged. "I'm afraid I do not traffic in the specifics. However, I know of one who does... and for the skeptics, I have another reason to see the ancient one."

Sara looked around at the others, then shrugged. "Fine. Let's hear it."

The Elder nodded. "Good. Now then, this digimon I speak of holds the key t-"

The forest behind the Elder exploded. The blast flattened the poorly built structures the Vicanmon had set up, and the vast majority of the Vicanmon attempted to flee with the Vinmon. Only the Elder, Saph and Sarr stayed with the humans.

As the smoke from the explosion cleared, a group of shadows emerged. One of them chuckled. "Looks like we've got a few who won't go quietly."

A second one nodded. "You know the orders. Leave no survivors. Show no mercy."

* * *

Shadow- "Crap! It's been two and a half months since I updated!"

Renamon- "Wait, you're not dead?"

Shadow- (sighs) "No. I got a Wii. And let me tell you: Brawl is AWESOME, Galaxy is AWESOME, Kart is... well, sorta okay. Oh, and if you own a DS, and don't own The World Ends With You, you are dead to me."

Renamon- "Good game?"

Shadow- "I have spent more than fifty hours playing it, most of which were spent sitting in my room, ignoring my Wii."

Renamon- "Oh. I wondered why I hadn't seen you in a while. When was the last time you went outside?"

Shadow- "...What is this 'outside' you speak of?"

Renamon- "..."

Shadow- "Ahywho, I managed to write this between gaming sessions, so here you go. I should have regular updates going again after next week, because I'm going on vacation then."

Renamon- "Are you taking me again?"

Shadow- "Only if you wing-ride this time. They're charging for carry-on's now."

Renamon- "Phooey. It was fun mixing up peoples' bag contents in the overhead bin."

Shadow- "That was you?!"

Renamon- (nods)

Shadow- "...anyway, it's good to see you all again! Please don't abandon me! Good stuff is yet to come!"

Renamon- "Shadow does not own digimon, leave a review, yadda yadda yadda. You know the drill by now."

Shadow- "Thanks for reading!"


End file.
